Documentation and resources

Books, documentation, tutorials and talks about the golemverse, gathered since 2019. The ecosystem keeps moving, so some of the oldest entries below may be out of date.

Books 📚

“Engineering Production-grade Shiny Apps” — the book behind the golemverse, by Colin Fay, Sébastien Rochette, Vincent Guyader and Cervan Girard. Free to read online, and in print in the R Series by Chapman and Hall/CRC.
“Shiny App-Packages” — a whole chapter builds the same app with {golem}, by Martin Frigaard.
“Shiny Frameworks” — {golem}, {leprechaun} and {rhino} side by side, by Martin Frigaard.
🇧🇷 “Programando em Shiny” — chapter 11 covers {golem} in Portuguese, by Curso-R.

Documentation 📖

Getting started — from create_golem() to a first working app.
Day to day development — modules, functions, tests, the dev/ scripts.
Deploy your app — Docker, {renv}, Posit Connect, shinyapps.io, ShinyProxy.
JavaScript and configuration.
Extending {golem} — write your own templates and hooks.
Test your app with Playwright — the {pw} package documentation.
golem agent skills — teach your coding assistant the golem conventions.

Cheatsheet 📑

{golem} cheatsheet, also in the Posit cheatsheet gallery.

Blog posts ✍️

For the latest news, read the golemverse blog.

You can also browse the “golem” tag on the RTask website.

Written elsewhere in the community:

“{rhino} vs {golem} vs {leprechaun}: Which R/Shiny Library is Right for You?” — Gift Kenneth, Appsilon, 2023.
“Navigating the Shiny Universe with Golem” — Thiago de Paula Oliveira, 2023.
“Deploying a Golem Shiny App to ShinyApps.io” — Mauricio Vargas Sepúlveda, 2025.
golemWebR — a worked example of a {golem} app served with webR, by David Granjon.

Conferences, videos, podcasts 🤩

Have any resource to add here? Feel free to open an issue!.

2025

2025-10-08 Workshop - Production-Proof Shiny: end-to-end testing with Playwright and {golem} Shiny in Production, Newcastle, by Colin Fay
2025-07-20 🎥 Golem is a Must-Know Framework For R-Shiny (and here’s how to use it) Online, by Albert Rapp

2023

2023-06-29 🎥 Building a basic Shiny app with {golem} - Part II Online, by Mauricio Vargas Sepulveda
2023-04-15 🎥 Building a basic Shiny app with {golem} - Part I Online, by Mauricio Vargas Sepulveda
2023-03-16 🎥 Keynote - Production is like ultra running: brutal, ungrateful, but worth every step ShinyConf 2023, by Colin Fay

2022

2022-11-23 🎥 Building Production-Quality Shiny Applications R/Pharma, by Eric Nantz
2022-10-07 🎥 DESTROY ALL WIDGETS! Shiny in Production, Newcastle, by Colin Fay
2022-07-27 🎥 🇫🇷 Déploiement d’une application {shiny} dans docker avec {renv} et {golem}. Online, by Vincent Guyader
2022-02-24 🎥 🇫🇷 De la Création au Déploiement d’Applications {shiny} avec {golem} Meetup R Lille et Tunis R User Group, by Margot Brard
2022-02-16 🎥 Building Multiple Page Shiny Apps with {brochure} NHSR, by Colin Fay

2021

2021-12-13 🎥 Shiny Dev Series - Colin Fay is back Shiny Dev Series, by Colin Fay
2021-10-15 Workshop - Good Practices for {shiny} development with {golem} EARL, by Colin Fay
2021-07-12 🎥 🇫🇷 Conception d’applications Shiny avec {golem} Online, by Vincent Guyader
2021-05-18 🎥 Mastering Shiny Book Club the golem package Online, by Colin Fay

2020

2020-10-01 Building a modularized Shiny App with {golem} and htmlwidgets CorrelCon, by Cedric Scherer
2020-09-25 Workshop - Engineering {shiny} with {golem} WhyR, by Colin Fay
2020-09-09 An overview of testing in R AI Testing online meetup, by Colin Fay
2020-08-26 🎥 Production R Shiny Made Easy– the Golem Framework Cleveland R User Group, by Liz Nelson
2020-07-28 🎥 Everything not Tested Will Eventually Fail NYR Meetup, by Colin Fay
2020-06-18 Testing Shiny - Why, what, and how e-Rum, by Colin Fay
2020-04-27 🎥 Engineering Shiny Apps with {golem} BristolR Online Meetup, by Colin Fay
2020-03-26 🎥 Create meaningful fake tidy datasets in R using fakir Online, by Abdul Majed
2020-03-06 Workshop - Building Successful Shiny Apps with {golem} satRday Johannesburg, by Colin Fay
2020-01-30 🎥 Production-grade Shiny Apps with golem rstudio::conf(2020L), by Colin Fay / Vincent Guyader

2019

2019-12-03 {golem} - Engineering Production-Grade Shiny Apps Barcelona R Meetup, by Colin Fay
2019-11-20 🇫🇷 Introduction à {golem} en français Online, by Cervan Girard
2019-08-22 Creating (and Reviving) Shiny apps with {golem}! R Pharma 2019, by Eric Nantz
2019-07-17 🎥 🇧🇷 Usando o pacote {golem} para criar Shiny Apps com o R Online, by Curso-R
2019-07-10 🎥 A Framework for Building Robust & Production Ready Shiny Apps useR! 2019, by Vincent Guyader
2019-06-19 🎥 Hands-on demonstration of {golem} Shiny Dev Series, by Colin Fay
2019-06-19 🎥 {golem} and Effective Shiny Development Methods Shiny Dev Series, by Colin Fay
2019-05-24 Production-grade Shiny Apps with {golem} Paris, by Colin Fay

Apps built with `{golem}` 🚀

A list of open-source applications built with {golem}, from research tools to NHS dashboards, is kept in the package documentation.