Calling the MongoDB Atlas API from Go involves using the standard HTTP package and a third-party digest authentication library, as direct support is not currently available. The process begins by importing necessary packages and setting the base URL for the MongoDB Atlas API. Environment variables `ATLAS_USER` and `ATLAS_USER_KEY` are used to authenticate with the API. A transport object is created using these credentials, and a request is sent over this transport. The response is then read and decoded into an interface, which can be further processed or printed in a human-readable format.