It's the official GitHub action for golangci-lint from its authors.

The action runs golangci-lint and reports issues from linters.

golangci-lint is a free and open-source project built by volunteers.

If you value it, consider supporting us, we appreciate it! ❤️

We recommend running this action in a job separate from other jobs (go test, etc.) because different jobs run in parallel.

Add .github/workflows/golangci-lint.yml with the following contents:

name: golangci-lint
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - master
  pull_request:

permissions:
  contents: read
  # Optional: allow read access to pull request. Use with `only-new-issues` option.
  # pull-requests: read

jobs:
  golangci:
    name: lint
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version: stable
      - name: golangci-lint
        uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
        with:
          version: v1.60

name: golangci-lint
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - master
  pull_request:

permissions:
  contents: read
  # Optional: allow read access to pull request. Use with `only-new-issues` option.
  # pull-requests: read

jobs:
  golangci:
    strategy:
      matrix:
        go: [stable]
        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
    name: lint
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version: ${{ matrix.go }}
      - name: golangci-lint
        uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
        with:
          version: v1.60

*.go text eol=lf

name: golangci-lint

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - master

env:
  GO_VERSION: stable
  GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION: v1.60

jobs:
  detect-modules:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      modules: ${{ steps.set-modules.outputs.modules }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version: ${{ env.GO_VERSION }}
      - id: set-modules
        run: echo "modules=$(go list -m -json | jq -s '.' | jq -c '[.[].Dir]')" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

  golangci-lint:
    needs: detect-modules
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        modules: ${{ fromJSON(needs.detect-modules.outputs.modules) }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version: ${{ env.GO_VERSION }}
      - name: golangci-lint ${{ matrix.modules }}
        uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
        with:
          version: ${{ env.GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION }}
          working-directory: ${{ matrix.modules }}

# ./.github/workflows/golangci-lint.yml
name: golangci-lint (multi OS)

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - master

jobs:
  golangci-lint:
    strategy:
      matrix:
        go-version: [ stable, oldstable ]
        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
    uses: ./.github/workflows/.golangci-lint-reusable.yml
    with:
      os: ${{ matrix.os }}
      go-version: ${{ matrix.go-version }}
      golangci-lint-version: v1.60

# ./.github/workflows/.golangci-lint-reusable.yml
name: golangci-lint-reusable

on:
  workflow_call:
    inputs:
      os:
        description: 'OS'
        required: true
        type: string
      go-version:
        description: 'Go version'
        required: true
        type: string
        default: stable
      golangci-lint-version:
        description: 'Golangci-lint version'
        type: string
        default: 'v1.60'

jobs:
  detect-modules:
    runs-on: ${{ inputs.os }}
    outputs:
      modules: ${{ steps.set-modules.outputs.modules }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version: ${{ inputs.go-version }}
      - id: set-modules
        shell: bash # require for Windows to be able to use $GITHUB_OUTPUT https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/2224
        run: echo "modules=$(go list -m -json | jq -s '.' | jq -c '[.[].Dir]')" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

  golangci-lint:
    needs: detect-modules
    runs-on: ${{ inputs.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        modules: ${{ fromJSON(needs.detect-modules.outputs.modules) }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version: ${{ inputs.go-version }}
      - name: golangci-lint ${{ matrix.modules }}
        uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
        with:
          version: ${{ inputs.golangci-lint-version }}
          working-directory: ${{ matrix.modules }}

*.go text eol=lf

• v6.0.0+ removes annotations option, removes the default output format (github-actions).
• v5.0.0+ removes skip-pkg-cache and skip-build-cache because the cache related to Go itself is already handled by actions/setup-go.
• v4.0.0+ requires an explicit actions/setup-go installation step before using this action: uses: actions/setup-go@v5. The skip-go-installation option has been removed.
• v2.0.0+ works with golangci-lint version >= v1.28.3
• v1.2.2 is deprecated due to we forgot to change the minimum version of golangci-lint to v1.28.3 (issue)
• v1.2.1 works with golangci-lint version >= v1.14.0 (issue)

(optional)

The version of golangci-lint to use.

When install-mode is:

• binary (default): the value can be v1.2 or v1.2.3 or latest to use the latest version.
• goinstall: the value can be v1.2.3, latest, or the hash of a commit.
• none: the value is ignored.

uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
with:
  version: v1.58
  # ...

(optional)

The mode to install golangci-lint: it can be binary, goinstall, or none.

The default value is binary.

uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
with:
  install-mode: "goinstall"
  # ...

(optional)

When using only-new-issues option, the GitHub API is used, so a token is required.

By default, it uses the github.token from the action.

uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
with:
  github-token: xxx
  # ...

(optional)

Show only new issues.

The default value is false.

• pull_request and pull_request_target: the action gets the diff of the PR content from the GitHub API and use it with --new-from-patch.
• push: the action gets the diff of the push content (difference between commits before and after the push) from the GitHub API and use it with --new-from-patch.
• merge_group: the action gets the diff by using --new-from-rev option (relies on git). You should add the option fetch-depth: 0 to actions/checkout step.

uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
with:
  only-new-issues: true
  # ...

(optional)

Working directory, useful for monorepos.

uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
with:
  working-directory: somedir
  # ...

(optional)

golangci-lint command line arguments.

Note: By default, the .golangci.yml file should be at the root of the repository. The location of the configuration file can be changed by using --config=

uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
with:
  args: --timeout=30m --config=/my/path/.golangci.yml --issues-exit-code=0
  # ...

(optional)

Force the usage of the embedded problem matchers.

By default, the problem matcher of Go (actions/setup-go) already handles the golangci-lint output (colored-line-number).

Works only with colored-line-number (the golangci-lint default).

https://golangci-lint.run/usage/configuration/#output-configuration

The default value is false.

uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
with:
  problem-matchers: true
  # ...

(optional)

If set to true, then all caching functionality will be completely disabled, takes precedence over all other caching options.

The default value is false.

uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
with:
  skip-cache: true
  # ...

(optional)

If set to true, caches will not be saved, but they may still be restored, required skip-cache: false.

The default value is false.

uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
with:
  skip-save-cache: true
  # ...

(optional)

Periodically invalidate the cache every cache-invalidation-interval days to ensure that outdated data is removed and fresh data is loaded.

The default value is 7.

If set the number is <= 0, the cache will be always invalidate (Not recommended).

uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v6
with:
  cache-invalidation-interval: 15
  # ...

Currently, GitHub parses the action's output and creates annotations.

The restrictions of annotations are the following:

1. Currently, they don't support Markdown formatting (see the feature request)
2. They aren't shown in the list of comments. If you would like to have comments - please, up-vote the issue.
3. The number of annotations is limited.

To enable annotations, you need to add the checks permission to your action.

permissions:
  # Required: allow read access to the content for analysis.
  contents: read
  # Optional: allow read access to pull request. Use with `only-new-issues` option.
  pull-requests: read
  # Optional: allow write access to checks to allow the action to annotate code in the PR.
  checks: write

The action was implemented with performance in mind:

1. We cache data from golangci-lint analysis between builds by using @actions/cache.
2. We don't use Docker because image pulling is slow.
3. We do as much as we can in parallel, e.g. we download cache, and golangci-lint binary in parallel.

For example, in a repository of golangci-lint running this action without the cache takes 50s, but with cache takes 14s:

• in parallel:
  • 4s to restore 50 MB of cache
  • 1s to find and install golangci-lint
• 1s to run golangci-lint (it takes 35s without cache)

We use JavaScript-based action. We don't use Docker-based action because:

1. Docker pulling is slow currently
2. it's easier to use caching from @actions/cache

We support different platforms, such as ubuntu, macos, and windows with x32 and x64 archs.

Inside our action, we perform 3 steps:

1. Setup environment running in parallel:
   • restore cache of previous analyses
   • fetch action config and find the latest golangci-lint patch version for needed version (users of this action can specify only minor version of golangci-lint). After that install golangci-lint using @actions/tool-cache
2. Run golangci-lint with specified by user args
3. Save cache for later builds

1. We save and restore the following directory: ~/.cache/golangci-lint.
2. The primary caching key looks like golangci-lint.cache-{runner_os}-{working_directory}-{interval_number}-{go.mod_hash}. Interval number ensures that we periodically invalidate our cache (every 7 days). go.mod hash ensures that we invalidate the cache early - as soon as dependencies have changed.
3. We use restore keys: golangci-lint.cache-{runner_os}-{working_directory}-{interval_number}-. GitHub matches keys by prefix if we have no exact match for the primary cache.

This scheme is basic and needs improvements. Pull requests and ideas are welcome.