go

name	go
description	Use when working with the Go CLI (go command) — building, testing, modules, workspaces, environment, toolchain, generate, vet, coverage, profiling, fuzzing, cross-compilation, and internal tool commands. Triggers on: "go", "go build", "go test", "go mod", "go work", "go generate", "go vet", "go tool", "go get", "go install", "go run", "go clean", "go list", "go env", "go doc", "go fmt", "go fix", "go version", "go telemetry", "GOMODCACHE", "GOPROXY", "GOSUMDB", "GOPRIVATE", "GOTOOLCHAIN", "GOOS", "GOARCH", "CGO_ENABLED", "build constraint", "build tag", "go.mod", "go.sum", "go.work", "vendor", "pprof", "cover", "test2json", "buildjson", "GODEBUG", "GOEXPERIMENT", "minimal version selection", "MVS", "module proxy", "toolchain", "fuzzing", "race detector".
user-invocable	true

Go CLI In-Depth Reference

Comprehensive reference for the go command-line tool — the driver for building, testing, module management, code generation, and toolchain operations in Go. Covers the module system, build flags, test framework, environment variables, workspaces, and the bundled go tool subcommands.

Data Flow

Source code (packages)
  → go build / go install (compile + link)
    → build cache (GOCACHE)
      → executable / archive

go.mod (module definition)
  → go get / go mod tidy (resolve dependencies)
    → module proxy (GOPROXY) / VCS (GOVCS)
      → module cache (GOMODCACHE)
        → go.sum (checksum verification, GOSUMDB)

go test (compile test binary)
  → go vet (automatic, subset)
    → test binary (pkg.test)
      → test cache (package list mode)
        → coverage profile / pprof profile / trace

Sub-Resources

Load the reference that matches your task. When in doubt, load multiple references.

Keywords	Reference
concept, model, module, package, import path, GOPATH, GOROOT, GO111MODULE, module-aware mode, GOPATH mode, package pattern, all, std, cmd, tool, wildcard, ..., reserved package names, main package, test package, _test suffix, testdata, vendor, file types, .go, .c, .s, .syso, source file naming, *_GOOS, *_GOARCH, implicit build constraint	references/concepts.md
go build, build flags, -o, -a, -n, -x, -p, -race, -msan, -asan, -cover, -covermode, -coverpkg, -v, -work, -asmflags, -buildmode, -buildvcs, -compiler, -gccgoflags, -gcflags, -installsuffix, -json, -ldflags, -linkshared, -mod, -modcacherw, -modfile, -overlay, -pgo, -pkgdir, -tags, -trimpath, -toolexec, build mode, archive, c-archive, c-shared, shared, exe, pie, plugin, PGO, profile-guided optimization, trimpath, cross-compilation, GOOS, GOARCH, build constraint, build tag, //go:build, // +build, buildjson, BuildEvent, shared build flags, -C	references/build.md
go test, test flag, -run, -skip, -bench, -benchtime, -count, -failfast, -fullpath, -fuzz, -fuzztime, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , test2json, TestEvent, cacheable flags, local directory mode, package list mode, test caching, , fuzzing, seed corpus, testdata, fuzz cache, test binary, prefix, testing functions, TestXxx, BenchmarkXxx, FuzzXxx, ExampleXxx, , , race detector, sanitizer

Quick Guide

• What are Go's core concepts (modules, packages, GOPATH)? → references/concepts.md
• How do I build/compile Go code? → references/build.md
• What build flags are available? → references/build.md
• How do build constraints/tags work? → references/build.md
• How do I run tests? → references/test.md
• What test flags are available? → references/test.md
• How does test caching work? → references/test.md
• How do I do fuzzing? → references/test.md
• How do coverage and profiling work? → references/test.md
• How do modules and go.mod work? → references/mod.md
• How do I add/remove dependencies? → references/mod.md
• How does the module proxy and checksum work? → references/mod.md
• What tools are available via go tool? → references/tool.md
• How does go vet work? → references/tool.md
• What environment variables does the go command use? → references/environment.md
• How do I set Go env vars persistently? → references/environment.md
• How do workspaces work? → references/work.md
• How does go generate work? → references/cli.md
• How do I install a tool or binary? → references/cli.md
• How do I clean caches? → references/cli.md
• How do I inspect a Go binary's version? → references/cli.md
• How do I cross-compile? → and

Cross-Project References

• For cobra CLI development (commands, flags, completions), use the cobra skill (in this repo).
• For carapace library development (Action API, traverse engine, shell formatters), use the carapace-dev skill (in this repo).
• For carapace user-facing integration (specs, macros, setup), use the carapace skill (in this repo).
• For Go testing framework internals (testing.T, testing.B, testing.F), see the Go testing package docs — this skill covers the go test command, not the testing API.
• For pprof usage details beyond go tool pprof, see the pprof docs.