setup-go/README.md

# setup-go

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This action sets up a Go environment for use in GitHub Actions by:

- Optionally downloading and caching a version of Go by version and adding it to the PATH
- Optionally caching Go modules and build outputs
- Registering problem matchers for error output

## Breaking changes in V6

The V6 edition of the action includes:
- **Upgraded Node.js runtime from node20 to node24**
  > Make sure your runner is on version v2.327.1 or later to ensure compatibility with this release. See [Release Notes](https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/tag/v2.327.1)

- **Go toolchain**
  - Supports both `go` and `toolchain` directives in `go.mod`. If the `toolchain` directive is present, its version is used; otherwise, the action falls back to the `go` directive.

- **Cache key update**
  - By default, the cache key for Go modules is based on `go.mod`. To use `go.sum`, configure the `cache-dependency-path` input.

See full release notes on the [releases page](https://github.com/actions/setup-go/releases).

## Usage

See [action.yml](action.yml).

<!-- start usage -->
```yaml
- uses: actions/setup-go@v6
  with:
    # Version or version range of Go to use
    go-version: '1.23'
    
    # Path to go.mod, go.work, .go-version, or .tool-versions file
    # Note: if both go-version and go-version-file are provided, go-version takes precedence.
    go-version-file: 'go.mod'
    
    # Set this option if you want the action to check for the latest available version
    # Default: false
    check-latest: false
    
    # GitHub token for authentication
    token: ${{ github.token }}
    
    # Used to specify whether caching is needed.
    # Default: true
    cache: true
    
    # Path to dependency files for caching
    cache-dependency-path: 'go.sum'
    
    # Architecture to install (auto-detected if not specified)
    architecture: 'x64'
```
<!-- end usage -->

**Basic:**

```yaml
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.25' # The Go version to download (if necessary) and use.
  - run: go run hello.go
```

**Version resolution behavior:**

The action resolves the requested version in the following order:
1. **Local cache** - Checks the local tool cache for a matching [semver](https://github.com/npm/node-semver#versions) version.
2. **go-versions repository** - If the requested version isn’t available in the tool cache, it pulls the version manifest from the `main` branch of the [go-versions repository](https://github.com/actions/go-versions/blob/main/versions-manifest.json).
3. **Direct download** - If that lookup misses or fails, it will fall back to downloading directly from the [official Go distribution site](https://go.dev/dl).

To change the default behavior, please use
the [check-latest input](docs/advanced-usage.md#check-latest-version).

> **Note**: The `setup-go` action uses executable binaries built by the Go team and does not build Go binaries from source code.

## Supported version syntax

The `go-version` input supports the following syntax:

- Specific versions: `1.25`, `1.24.11`, `1.24.0-rc.1`, `1.23.0-beta.1`
- SemVer version range syntax: `^1.25.1`, `~1.24.1`, `>=1.25.0-rc.1`, `<1.25.0`, `>=1.22.0 <1.24.0`
- Aliases: `stable`, `oldstable`
- Wildcards: `1.25.x`, `1.x`

For details on Semantic Versioning, see [the semver package documentation](https://github.com/npm/node-semver).

> **Note**: Due to the peculiarities of YAML parsing, it is recommended to wrap the version in single quotation marks:
>
> ```yaml
>   go-version: '1.20'
> ```
>
> The recommendation is based on the YAML parser's behavior, which interprets non-wrapped values as numbers and, in the case of version `1.20`, trims it down to `1.2`, which may not be very obvious.

For more usage examples, please refer to the section: [Using go-version input](docs/advanced-usage.md#using-the-go-version-input) of the [Advanced usage](docs/advanced-usage.md) guide.

## Recommended permissions

When using the `setup-go` action in your GitHub Actions workflow, it is recommended to set the following permissions to ensure proper functionality:

```yaml
permissions:
  contents: read # access to check out code and install dependencies
```

## Caching dependency files and build outputs

The action includes built-in caching and restoration for Go modules and build outputs. It uses
[toolkit/cache](https://github.com/actions/toolkit/tree/main/packages/cache) under the hood, but requires less configuration.
The `cache` input is optional, and caching is enabled by default. To disable caching, set `cache: false`.

By default, the action looks for `go.mod` in the repository root and uses its hash as part of the cache key. Use the `cache-dependency-path` input when you have multiple dependency files, or when they’re located in different subdirectories. This input supports glob patterns.

If caching cannot be performed for any reason, the action logs a warning and continues workflow execution.

For examples of using `cache-dependency-path`, see the [Caching](docs/advanced-usage.md#caching) section of the [Advanced usage](docs/advanced-usage.md) guide.


## Advanced usage

- [Using the go-version input](docs/advanced-usage.md#using-the-go-version-input)
- [Using the go-version-file input](docs/advanced-usage.md#using-the-go-version-file-input)
- [Check latest version](docs/advanced-usage.md#check-latest-version)
- [Caching](docs/advanced-usage.md#caching)
- [Outputs](docs/advanced-usage.md#outputs)
- [Using `setup-go` on GHES](docs/advanced-usage.md#using-setup-go-on-ghes)

## License

The scripts and documentation in this project are released under the [MIT License](LICENSE).

## Contributions

Contributions are welcome! See our [Contributor's Guide](docs/contributors.md).

## Code of Conduct

:wave: Be nice. See [our code of conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)