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The Config struct is passed to gorm.Open to control GORM behaviour at the session level. It implements the Option interface, so you pass it directly as the second argument to Open. 
db, err := gorm.Open(dialector, &gorm.Config{
    SkipDefaultTransaction: true,
    NamingStrategy: schema.NamingStrategy{
        TablePrefix:   "app_",
        SingularTable: true,
    },
    Logger: logger.Default.LogMode(logger.Info),
    PrepareStmt: true,
})

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Transaction behaviour

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SkipDefaultTransaction
bool
default:"false"
When true, GORM does not wrap single create, update, and delete operations in an implicit transaction. Improves performance for workloads that do not need the extra safety.
​
DefaultTransactionTimeout
time.Duration
default:"0"
If greater than zero, a context timeout is automatically applied to each transaction started with Begin (unless the context already has a deadline).
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DefaultContextTimeout
time.Duration
default:"0"
A default timeout duration applied to statement contexts when no explicit deadline is set.
​
DisableNestedTransaction
bool
default:"false"
When true, calling Transaction inside an existing transaction does not create a savepoint. The inner fc executes directly on the outer transaction.
​
AllowGlobalUpdate
bool
default:"false"
When false (the default), GORM returns ErrMissingWhereClause if you attempt an update or delete without any WHERE conditions. Set to true to allow global updates.

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Naming strategy

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NamingStrategy
schema.Namer
Controls how Go struct and field names are converted to table and column names. The default implementation (schema.NamingStrategy) snake-cases names and pluralises table names. Common fields:
NamingStrategy: schema.NamingStrategy{
    TablePrefix:   "t_",   // table name prefix
    SingularTable: false,  // use singular table names
    NoLowerCase:   false,  // disable lower case conversion
    NameReplacer:  strings.NewReplacer("CID", "Cid"),
}

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Associations

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FullSaveAssociations
bool
default:"false"
When true, GORM performs a full upsert of all associations when saving a record (instead of only updating foreign keys). Useful when you want a single Save call to persist nested structs.
​
PropagateUnscoped
bool
default:"false"
When true, the Unscoped flag is propagated to every nested statement, including preloads and association queries.

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Logging

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Logger
logger.Interface
The logger implementation. Defaults to logger.Default, which writes to stdout. Use logger.Default.LogMode(logger.Silent) to suppress all output, or provide a custom implementation.
Logger: logger.New(
    log.New(os.Stdout, "\r\n", log.LstdFlags),
    logger.Config{
        SlowThreshold:             200 * time.Millisecond,
        LogLevel:                  logger.Warn,
        IgnoreRecordNotFoundError: true,
        Colorful:                  true,
    },
)
​
TranslateError
bool
default:"false"
When true, database-specific errors returned by the dialector are translated to standard GORM errors such as ErrDuplicatedKey, ErrForeignKeyViolated, and ErrCheckConstraintViolated. The dialector must implement ErrorTranslator.

​
Time

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NowFunc
func() time.Time
The function GORM calls to obtain the current time when setting CreatedAt, UpdatedAt, or DeletedAt fields. Defaults to time.Now().Local(). Override to use UTC or a custom clock.
NowFunc: func() time.Time {
    return time.Now().UTC()
}

​
Statement preparation

​
DryRun
bool
default:"false"
When true, GORM generates SQL but does not execute it. The generated SQL is available on db.Statement.SQL. Useful for inspection and testing.
​
PrepareStmt
bool
default:"false"
When true, GORM caches prepared statements. Subsequent identical queries reuse the cached statement, reducing parsing overhead on the database server.
​
PrepareStmtMaxSize
int
default:"0"
Maximum number of entries in the prepared statement LRU cache. A value of 0 uses the maximum int64 value (effectively unlimited).
​
PrepareStmtTTL
time.Duration
default:"1h"
Time-to-live for entries in the prepared statement LRU cache. Expired entries are evicted on the next access.

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Querying

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QueryFields
bool
default:"false"
When true, SELECT statements explicitly list every column name from the model instead of using SELECT *. Useful when tables have columns that conflict with GORM’s scanning logic.
​
CreateBatchSize
int
default:"0"
Default batch size used by Create when Config.CreateBatchSize > 0. Individual calls to CreateInBatches can override this per-call.

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Migrations

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DisableAutomaticPing
bool
default:"false"
When true, GORM does not call Ping() on the connection pool after Open. Useful when connecting to databases that do not support ping, or when you want to defer the first connection.
​
DisableForeignKeyConstraintWhenMigrating
bool
default:"false"
When true, AutoMigrate and Migrator do not create foreign key constraints. The relationships are still inferred in Go but not enforced at the database level.
​
IgnoreRelationshipsWhenMigrating
bool
default:"false"
When true, AutoMigrate ignores all relationships and does not create join tables or foreign key constraints.

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Low-level / advanced

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ClauseBuilders
map[string]clause.ClauseBuilder
A map of custom clause builders keyed by clause name. Use this to override or extend how SQL clauses are rendered for a specific dialector.
​
ConnPool
ConnPool
The underlying connection pool. Normally set by the dialector during Initialize. You can supply a custom pool (e.g., a *sql.DB you configure yourself) before calling Open.
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Dialector
Dialector
The database dialector embedded in Config. Set automatically by Open from the first argument.
​
Plugins
map[string]Plugin
The registry of plugins registered via db.Use(...). Keyed by plugin name.

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