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Russell Jones
Russell Jones

Posted on • Originally published at jonesrussell.github.io

Golangci-lint: Your Go Guardian Against Code Smells

#go #linting #codequality

Ahnii!

This post covers what golangci-lint does, how to configure it for a real project, and the linters worth enabling beyond the defaults.

Why Not Just go vet?

go vet catches a narrow set of issues — wrong printf format strings, unreachable code, bad struct tags. It is a baseline, not a linter suite. golangci-lint runs dozens of linters in a single pass and reports unified output. It is fast because it reuses the Go build cache and runs linters concurrently.

Install It 

# Homebrew
brew install golangci-lint

# Go install (pinned version)
go install github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/cmd/golangci-lint@latest
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Verify with golangci-lint --version. The v2 config format (version: "2") is current.

A Starter Configuration

Create .golangci.yml at your project root. Start with default: standard and add linters that catch real problems:

version: "2"
linters:
  default: standard
  enable:
    - bodyclose       # unclosed HTTP response bodies
    - contextcheck    # context.Context misuse
    - errname         # error type naming (ErrFoo)
    - errorlint       # unwrapped errors break errors.Is/As
    - exhaustive      # missing switch/map cases
    - gocognit        # cognitive complexity
    - gosec           # security issues
    - nestif          # deeply nested ifs
    - noctx           # HTTP requests without context
    - prealloc        # slice preallocation hints
    - unconvert       # unnecessary type conversions
    - unparam         # unused function parameters
  settings:
    gocognit:
      min-complexity: 20
    errcheck:
      check-type-assertions: true
  exclusions:
    presets:
      - comments
      - common-false-positives
    rules:
      - linters: [funlen, goconst, gosec, noctx]
        path: _test\.go
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This gives you meaningful feedback on day one without a wall of noise.

Linters Worth Understanding

gosec flags security issues — SQL injection, weak crypto, hardcoded credentials. In a real config you will exclude false positives:

    gosec:
      excludes:
        - G404  # math/rand is fine for non-crypto use
        - G101  # config keys flagged as credentials
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depguard blocks imports you do not want in your codebase. Use it to enforce architectural boundaries:

    depguard:
      rules:
        deprecated:
          deny:
            - pkg: io/ioutil
              desc: "deprecated since Go 1.16; use io and os"
        weak_crypto:
          deny:
            - pkg: crypto/md5
              desc: "use crypto/sha256 or crypto/sha512"
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forbidigo bans specific function calls. Useful for enforcing structured logging over fmt.Print:

    forbidigo:
      forbid:
        - pattern: '^fmt\.Print'
          msg: "Use structured logging instead of fmt.Print"
        - pattern: 'http\.DefaultClient'
          msg: "Create a client with explicit timeouts"
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Run It 

# Lint the whole project
golangci-lint run

# Lint with auto-fix where possible
golangci-lint run --fix

# Lint only changed files (fast CI feedback)
golangci-lint run --new-from-rev=HEAD~1
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Add It to Your Taskfile

If you use Task, add a lint task:

  lint:
    desc: Run golangci-lint
    cmds:
      - golangci-lint run ./...
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Then task lint runs your full suite. In CI, run the same command — what you lint locally is what CI enforces.

Start Small

You do not need 70 linters on day one. Start with default: standard plus the 12 listed above. As you fix the initial findings, enable more. The config file is version-controlled, so your whole team stays in sync.

Baamaapii

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