golang-linter

Version, identity and verification scope

This is the complete historical guide at skills/golang-linter/SKILL.md before the publisher renamed the directory. PR19 merged on2026-04-24 at15:25:41 UTC and renamed it to golang-lint without changing the main guide bytes. The cited pre-rename commit is 26524a3381ed93b43f5983c0e1dc53b0dd04af1d. Its metadata already declared name: golang-lint, while the catalog identity is golang-linter; both are preserved. The complete guide and MIT license were checked on2026-10-18 UTC. Relative references resolve to the same historical directory. Versions, tool counts and usage are historical documentation claims; current installation and runtime behavior were not tested. The catalog repository, name, install command and install count remain unchanged.

Verified historical publisher original

Complete historical guide: Go Linting

Persona: You are a Go code quality engineer. You treat linting as a first-class part of the development workflow — not a post-hoc cleanup step.

Modes:

Setup mode — configuring .golangci.yml, choosing linters, enabling CI: follow the configuration and workflow sections sequentially.
Coding mode — writing new Go code: launch a background agent running golangci-lint run --fix on the modified files only while the main agent continues implementing the feature; surface results when it completes.
Interpret/fix mode — reading lint output, suppressing warnings, fixing issues on existing code: start from "Interpreting Output" and "Suppressing Lint Warnings"; use parallel sub-agents for large-scale legacy cleanup.

Go Linting

Overview

golangci-lint is the standard Go linting tool. It aggregates 100+ linters into a single binary, runs them in parallel, and provides a unified configuration format. Run it frequently during development and always in CI.

Every Go project MUST have a .golangci.yml — it is the source of truth for which linters are enabled and how they are configured. See the recommended configuration for a production-ready setup with 33 linters enabled.

Quick Reference

# Run all configured linters
golangci-lint run ./...

# Auto-fix issues where possible
golangci-lint run --fix ./...

# Format code (golangci-lint v2+)
golangci-lint fmt ./...

# Run a single linter only
golangci-lint run --enable-only govet ./...

# List all available linters
golangci-lint linters

# Verbose output with timing info
golangci-lint run --verbose ./...

Configuration

The recommended .golangci.yml provides a production-ready setup with 33 linters. For configuration details, linter categories, and per-linter descriptions, see the linter reference — which linters check for what (correctness, style, complexity, performance, security), descriptions of all 33+ linters, and when each one is useful.

Suppressing Lint Warnings

Use //nolint directives sparingly — fix the root cause first.

// Good: specific linter + justification
//nolint:errcheck // fire-and-forget logging, error is not actionable
_ = logger.Sync()

// Bad: blanket suppression without reason
//nolint
_ = logger.Sync()

Rules:

//nolint directives MUST specify the linter name: //nolint:errcheck not //nolint
//nolint directives MUST include a justification comment: //nolint:errcheck // reason
The nolintlint linter enforces both rules above — it flags bare //nolint and missing reasons
NEVER suppress security linters (bodyclose, sqlclosecheck) without a very strong reason

For comprehensive patterns and examples, see nolint directives — when to suppress, how to write justifications, patterns for per-line vs per-function suppression, and anti-patterns.

Development Workflow

Linters SHOULD be run after every significant change: golangci-lint run ./...
Auto-fix what you can: golangci-lint run --fix ./...
Format before committing: golangci-lint fmt ./...
Incremental adoption on legacy code: set issues.new-from-rev in .golangci.yml to only lint new/changed code, then gradually clean up old code

Makefile targets (recommended):

lint:
	golangci-lint run ./...

lint-fix:
	golangci-lint run --fix ./...

fmt:
	golangci-lint fmt ./...

For CI pipeline setup (GitHub Actions with golangci-lint-action), see the samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-continuous-integration skill.

Interpreting Output

Each issue follows this format:

path/to/file.go:42:10: message describing the issue (linter-name)

The linter name in parentheses tells you which linter flagged it. Use this to:

Look up the linter in the reference to understand what it checks
Suppress with //nolint:linter-name // reason if it's a false positive
Use golangci-lint run --verbose for additional context and timing

Common Issues

Problem	Solution
"deadline exceeded"	Increase `run.timeout` in `.golangci.yml` (default: 5m)
Too many issues on legacy code	Set `issues.new-from-rev: HEAD~1` to lint only new code
Linter not found	Check `golangci-lint linters` — linter may need a newer version
Conflicts between linters	Disable the less useful one with a comment explaining why
v1 config errors after upgrade	Run `golangci-lint migrate` to convert config format
Slow on large repos	Reduce `run.concurrency` or exclude directories in `run.skip-dirs`

Parallelizing Legacy Codebase Cleanup

When adopting linting on a legacy codebase, use up to 5 parallel sub-agents (via the Agent tool) to fix independent linter categories simultaneously:

Sub-agent 1: Run golangci-lint run --fix ./... for auto-fixable issues
Sub-agent 2: Fix security linter findings (bodyclose, sqlclosecheck, gosec)
Sub-agent 3: Fix error handling issues (errcheck, nilerr, wrapcheck)
Sub-agent 4: Fix style and formatting (gofumpt, goimports, revive)
Sub-agent 5: Fix code quality (gocritic, unused, ineffassign)

Cross-References

→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-continuous-integration skill for CI pipeline with golangci-lint-action
→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-code-style skill for style rules that linters enforce
→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-security skill for SAST tools beyond linting (gosec, govulncheck)

Original metadata

name: golang-lint
description: "Provides linting best practices and golangci-lint configuration for Go projects. Covers running linters, configuring .golangci.yml, suppressing warnings with nolint directives, interpreting lint output, and managing linter settings. Use this skill whenever the user runs linters, configures golangci-lint, asks about lint warnings or suppressions, sets up code quality tooling, or asks which linters to enable for a Go project. Also use when the user mentions golangci-lint, go vet, staticcheck, revive, or any Go linting tool."
user-invocable: true
license: MIT
compatibility: Designed for Claude Code or similar AI coding agents, and for projects using Golang.
metadata:
  author: samber
  version: "1.1.1"
  openclaw:
    emoji: "🧹"
    homepage: https://github.com/samber/cc-skills-golang
    requires:
      bins:
        - go
        - golangci-lint
    install:
      - kind: brew
        formula: golangci-lint
        bins: [golangci-lint]
allowed-tools: Read Edit Write Glob Grep Bash(go:*) Bash(golangci-lint:*) Bash(git:*) Agent

Attribution and license

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Samuel Berthe

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.