go-lint

name	go-lint
description	Linting and formatting Go code with `gofmt`, `goimports`, `golangci-lint`, and a curated `.golangci.yml`. ALWAYS use this skill when setting up or troubleshooting Go linting — installing golangci-lint, dropping the bundled `.golangci.yml` into a project, configuring pre-commit hooks, picking which linters to enable (errcheck, govet, staticcheck, unused, misspell, prealloc, gosec, revive, gocritic), suppressing findings with `//nolint` comments, reading lint output, or wiring lint into CI. Pair with go-style for the underlying idioms most lint rules enforce.
when_to_use	TRIGGER WHEN the user is setting up or troubleshooting Go linting and formatting — installing `golangci-lint`, dropping `.golangci.yml` into a project, configuring pre-commit hooks, picking linters (errcheck, govet, staticcheck, unused, misspell, prealloc, gosec, revive, gocritic, ineffassign, gocyclo), suppressing findings with `//nolint:linter-name` comments, reading lint output, debugging false positives, or wiring lint into CI (GitHub Actions, GitLab, etc.). ALSO TRIGGER on phrases like "set up linting", "configure golangci-lint", "why is the linter complaining", "run gofmt on this", "fix the imports". SKIP for non-Go linters (eslint, ruff, clippy).
version	1.2.0
tags	["go","golang","linting","golangci-lint","tooling","formatting"]
paths	["**/.golangci.yml","**/.golangci.yaml","**/*.go"]

Go Lint

Run gofmt, goimports, and golangci-lint on every commit. The formatters fix style automatically; the linter catches the bugs the compiler doesn't.

For the comprehensive reference, see references/linting.md. The bundled config lives at assets/golangci.yml and the setup script at scripts/setup_golangci_lint.sh.

Setup script

Drop the bundled config into a project and (optionally) install a pre-commit hook:

scripts/setup_golangci_lint.sh /path/to/project

The script copies .golangci.yml and prompts before installing the hook so you can opt out.

Day-to-day commands

# Run every enabled linter
golangci-lint run ./...

# Auto-fix what's fixable
golangci-lint run --fix ./...

# Lint a subset
golangci-lint run ./internal/...

# Show which linters are active
golangci-lint linters

# Format Go code (always before commit)
gofmt -w .
goimports -w .          # sorts and removes unused imports

Required tools

• gofmt / goimports: non-negotiable. goimports is a strict superset of gofmt.
• go vet: built into the toolchain; catches misuse of stdlib types.
• golangci-lint: the meta-linter; runs many analyzers in parallel with shared parsing.

Linters worth enabling

The bundled .golangci.yml turns these on:

Linter	What it catches
errcheck	Unchecked errors
govet	Stdlib misuse, shadowing, struct tag typos
staticcheck	The biggest set of static-analysis rules
unused	Dead code
misspell	Typos in comments and strings
prealloc	Slices that should be preallocated
gosec	Common security issues
revive	Successor to golint; readable rules
gocritic	Many opinionated readability checks
bodyclose	Unclosed http.Response.Body
nilerr	Returning a non-nil err as nil
errorlint	%w and wrapping mistakes

Suppressing findings

Prefer fixing over suppressing. When you must suppress, do so narrowly and explain why:

//nolint:gosec // not user input — read from a generated config file
buf, err := os.ReadFile(path)

//nolint without a linter name disables every linter on that line — avoid it. Always name the linter and add a comment.

//nolint:errcheck is almost never legitimate. A flagged unchecked error — usually a deferred Close, Flush, or Write — is an error to handle, not noise to silence. The bundled config enables check-blank, so _ = f.Close() is reported, and it never applies golangci-lint's std-error-handling exclusion preset, so a bare f.Close() is flagged too. Handle them with a named return and a deferred errors.Join (see the go-errors skill) instead of suppressing.

Pre-commit integration

The setup script writes a Git hook that runs golangci-lint run on staged Go files. To skip in an emergency, use a regular git commit after fixing — never --no-verify. If the hook is wrong, fix the rule.

CI integration

# .github/workflows/ci.yml fragment
- uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
  with:
    version: v1.61.0
    args: --timeout=5m

Pin the version. Floating latest will surprise you with new findings when the linter releases.

When to load a sibling skill

Task	Skill
Why a rule fires (the underlying idiom)	go-style
Catching shadowed ctx from :=	go-style (pitfalls)
Tests that should run alongside lint	go-testing
HTTP handlers that frequently trigger bodyclose	go-http