/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](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](references/build.md) | | go test, test flag, `-run`, `-skip`, `-bench`, `-benchtime`, `-count`, `-failfast`, `-fullpath`, `-fuzz`, `-fuzztime`, `-fuzzminimizetime`, `-json`, `-list`, `-outputdir`, `-parallel`, `-short`, `-shuffle`, `-timeout`, `-v`, `-vet`, `-args`, `-c`, `-exec`, `-o`, `-cover`, `-covermode`, `-coverpkg`, `-coverprofile`, `-benchmem`, `-blockprofile`, `-blockprofilerate`, `-cpuprofile`, `-memprofile`, `-memprofilerate`, `-mutexprofile`, `-mutexprofilefraction`, `-trace`, `-artifacts`, test2json, TestEvent, cacheable flags, local directory mode, package list mode, test caching, `-count=1`, fuzzing, seed corpus, testdata, fuzz cache, test binary, `-test.` prefix, testing functions, TestXxx, BenchmarkXxx, FuzzXxx, ExampleXxx, `t.Parallel`, `-race`, race detector, sanitizer | [references/test.md](references/test.md) | | go mod, mod init, mod tidy, mod download, mod edit, mod graph, mod vendor, mod verify, mod why, go.mod, go.sum, module path, module version, semver, semantic versioning, require, replace, exclude, retract, tool, ignore, godebug, indirect dependency, lazy module loading, minimal version selection, MVS, version query, `@latest`, `@none`, `@patch`, `@v1.2.3`, module cache, GOMODCACHE, modcacherw, vendor directory, `vendor/modules.txt`, `-mod=vendor`, `-mod=readonly`, `-mod=mod`, module-auth, go.sum, checksum, GOSUMDB, GOPRIVATE, GONOSUMDB, GONOPROXY, GOINSECURE, module proxy, GOPROXY, goproxy protocol, VCS, GOVCS, direct download, zip, `.info`, `.mod`, `.zip` | [references/mod.md](references/mod.md) | | go tool, tool command, asm, cgo, compile, cover, fix, link, preprofile, vet, `go tool vet`, `go tool cover`, `go tool pprof`, `go tool compile`, `go tool link`, `go tool asm`, `go tool cgo`, `-n`, toolexec, tool definition, `tool` directive in go.mod, `go tool` resolution, builtin tools, additional tools, cmd/vet, vet analyzer, `-vettool`, vet checks, printf, atomic, bool, buildtags, directive, errorsas, ifaceassert, nilfunc, stringintconv, tests, shadow analyzer, `-fix`, `-diff`, `go tool fix`, fixer, hostport | [references/tool.md](references/tool.md) | | go env, environment variable, GOARCH, GOOS, GOPATH, GOROOT, GOBIN, GOCACHE, GOCACHEPROG, GODEBUG, GOENV, GOFLAGS, GOINSECURE, GOMODCACHE, GOPRIVATE, GONOPROXY, GONOSUMDB, GOPROXY, GOSUMDB, GOTMPDIR, GOTOOLCHAIN, GOVCS, GOWORK, GO111MODULE, GOAUTH, GOEXPERIMENT, GOFIPS140, GOAMD64, GOARM, GOARM64, GO386, GOMIPS, GOMIPS64, GOPPC64, GORISCV64, GOWASM, CGO_ENABLED, CGO_CFLAGS, CGO_CPPFLAGS, CGO_CXXFLAGS, CGO_FFLAGS, CGO_LDFLAGS, CC, CXX, FC, AR, PKG_CONFIG, GOEXE, GOGCCFLAGS, GOHOSTARCH, GOHOSTOS, GOMOD, GOTELEMETRY, GOTELEMETRYDIR, GOTOOLDIR, GOVERSION, `go env -w`, `go env -u`, `go env -json`, `go env -changed`, env config file, GOENV | [references/environment.md](references/environment.md) | | go work, work init, work use, work sync, work edit, work vendor, go.work, workspace, use directive, replace directive, go directive, toolchain directive, godebug directive, GOWORK, workspace mode, multi-module, build list, sync, `-r` flag, GoWork JSON, Use struct, Replace struc