Go template and function

The template and function does not do short circuit evaluation like the Go && operator.

The arguments to the and function are evaluated before the function is called. The expression .User.Registered is always evaluated, even if .User is nil.

The fix is to use nested if:

 {{if .User}}{{if .User.Registered}}  {{end}}{{end}}

You can avoid the nested if or with by using a template function:

func isRegistered(u *user) bool {
  return u != nil && u.Registered
}

const tmpl = `{{if isRegistered .User}}registered{{else}}not registered{{end}}`

t := template.Must(template.New("").Funcs(template.FuncMap{"isRegistered": isRegistered}).Parse(tmpl))

playground example

Another option is to use the {{with}} action instead of the and template function.

Quoting from package doc of text/template:

{{with pipeline}} T1 {{end}}
    If the value of the pipeline is empty, no output is generated;
    otherwise, dot is set to the value of the pipeline and T1 is
    executed.

Using {{with}} often results in cleaner and shorter code, as inside the {{with}} the dot . is already set to the non-empty "wrapper", the .User in our case; moreover you don't have to worry about how and if the arguments of the and template function are evaluated.

Your template rewritten:

{{with .User -}}
    {{if .Registered}}REGISTERED{{end}}
{{- end}}

Testing it without and with a user:

t := template.Must(template.New("").Parse(tmpl))

fmt.Println("No user:")
if err := t.Execute(os.Stdout, nil); err != nil {
    panic(err)
}

u := struct{ Registered bool }{true}
fmt.Printf("User: %+v\n", u)
if err := t.Execute(os.Stdout, map[string]interface{}{"User": u}); err != nil {
    panic(err)
}

Output (try it on the Go Playground):

No user:
User: {Registered:true}
REGISTERED