bool field with default:true always stored as true, even when explicitly set to false in JSON

[avary]

I'm encountering unexpected behavior with GORM (v1.30.1) when inserting a record that includes a boolean field with default:true. Even when I explicitly send "is_active": false in the request JSON, GORM still inserts it as true in the database.

my model
type ProductCategory struct { gorm.Model Name string json:"name" gorm:"unique;not null"NameTr string json:"name_tr" gorm:"size:100"Description string json:"description" gorm:"type:text"Slug string json:"slug" gorm:"uniqueIndex;size:100;not null"SortOrder int json:"sort_order" gorm:"default:0"IsActive bool json:"is_active" gorm:"default:true" }

`2025/07/30 10:28:11 main.go:419: Starting server on http://localhost:8070 ...
2025/07/30 10:28:14 misc.go:86: Key 'root' is object with 6 fields
2025/07/30 10:28:14 misc.go:64: Key 'slug' is string: altin1
2025/07/30 10:28:14 misc.go:77: Key 'sort_order' is float64: 1.000000
2025/07/30 10:28:14 misc.go:79: Key 'is_active' is bool: false
2025/07/30 10:28:14 misc.go:64: Key 'name' is string: Altın1
2025/07/30 10:28:14 misc.go:64: Key 'name_tr' is string: Altın1
2025/07/30 10:28:14 misc.go:64: Key 'description' is string: Altın ürün kategorisi
2025/07/30 10:28:14 category.go:97: Parsed category.IsActive : false

2025/07/30 10:28:14 /Users/adam/zerduz/kuyum-go/market/handlers/category.go:99
[4.334ms] [rows:1] INSERT INTO product_categories (created_at,updated_at,deleted_at,name,name_tr,description,slug,sort_order,is_active) VALUES ('2025-07-30 10:28:14.382','2025-07-30 10:28:14.382',NULL,'Altın1','Altın1','Altın ürün kategorisi','altin1',1,true)`

Environment:

GORM version: v1.30.1

Go version: go1.24.5

Database: (MySQL 8.4)

playground link : go-gorm/playground#824

[github-actions]

The issue has been automatically marked as stale as it missing playground pull request link, which is important to help others understand your issue effectively and make sure the issue hasn't been fixed on latest master, checkout https://github.com/go-gorm/playground for details. it will be closed in 30 days if no further activity occurs. if you are asking question, please use the Question template, most likely your question already answered https://github.com/go-gorm/gorm/issues or described in the document https://gorm.io ✨ Search Before Asking ✨

[Fuzzyma]

This is an issue I run into today. Using "default: true" on any boolean field pretty much makes it always true even when specifically setting it to false:

package main

import (
	"log"
	"syscall"

	"fmt"

	"gorm.io/driver/postgres"
	"gorm.io/gorm"
)

func main() {
	connectionString := "host=localhost user=postgres password=yourpassword dbname=treed port=5432 sslmode=disable TimeZone=Europe/Berlin"
	db, _ := gorm.Open(postgres.Open(connectionString), &gorm.Config{})

	type Tree struct {
		ID     uint    `json:"id"`
		Exists bool    `json:"exists" gorm:"default:true"`
		Height float64 `json:"height" gorm:"type:FLOAT"`
	}

	tree := Tree{
		Exists: false,
		Height: 10.0,
	}

	db.Create(&tree)

	var debugCount struct {
		ExistsTrue  int64 `json:"exists_true"`
		ExistsFalse int64 `json:"exists_false"`
	}

	db.Model(&Tree{}).Where("exists = ?", true).Count(&debugCount.ExistsTrue)
	db.Model(&Tree{}).Where("exists = ?", false).Count(&debugCount.ExistsFalse)

	fmt.Printf("DEBUG: After insert - has %d trees with exists=true, %d with exists=false\n",
		debugCount.ExistsTrue, debugCount.ExistsFalse)
}

[github-actions]

The issue has been automatically marked as stale as it missing playground pull request link, which is important to help others understand your issue effectively and make sure the issue hasn't been fixed on latest master, checkout https://github.com/go-gorm/playground for details. it will be closed in 30 days if no further activity occurs. if you are asking question, please use the Question template, most likely your question already answered https://github.com/go-gorm/gorm/issues or described in the document https://gorm.io ✨ Search Before Asking ✨

[Fuzzyma]

Reproduction:

go-gorm/playground#824

[github-actions]

The issue has been automatically marked as stale as it missing playground pull request link, which is important to help others understand your issue effectively and make sure the issue hasn't been fixed on latest master, checkout https://github.com/go-gorm/playground for details. it will be closed in 30 days if no further activity occurs. if you are asking question, please use the Question template, most likely your question already answered https://github.com/go-gorm/gorm/issues or described in the document https://gorm.io ✨ Search Before Asking ✨