guynhsichngeodiecguynhsichngeodiec/cc-skills-golang/skills/golang-linter/SKILL.md

golang-lint

Skill0 starsChanged 7 months agoMITView on GitHub

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.

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

5 rules. 2 are common, 0 are distinctive, and 3 are very specific to this project.

2
Common
Most of the 10 edited versions we read keep these.
0
Distinctive
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
3
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

Common
Distinctive
Very specific

Very specific:
Every Go project MUST have a .golangci.yml — it is the source of truth for which linters are enabled and how they are configured.
line 38
Very specific:
Use //nolint directives sparingly — fix the root cause first.
line 68
Common:
Look up the linter in the reference to understand what it checks
line 121
Very specific:
Use golangci-lint run --verbose for additional context and timing
line 123
Common:
When adopting linting on a legacy codebase, use up to 5 parallel sub-agents (via the Agent tool) to fix independent linter categories …
line 138

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 10 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.

Files

SKILL.md

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)

Download now (ZIP)

Other versions10 projects use a version of this.
Word for word · 0
None found.
Edited · 9
samber/cc-skills-golang★ 3.6k79% same
klawisha012/agentsync★ 1884% same
alexastrum/skl★ 1189% same
tstapler/dotfiles★ 880% same
poizoncoded/skills★ 298% same
rockcookies/skills★ 179% same
VerifiedOrganic/onboard★ 187% same
jniltinho/llama-model★ 089% same
rzisso/golang-skills★ 079% same
Wrote their own version · 1
reagin/agent-skills★ 0same name
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
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In this repository35 other files it gives its agents.
- CLAUDE.mdCLAUDE.md
- golang-benchmarkSkill
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- golang-code-styleSkill
- golang-concurrencySkill
- golang-contextSkill
- golang-continuous-integrationSkill
- golang-databaseSkill
- golang-data-structuresSkill
- golang-dependency-injectionSkill
- golang-dependency-managementSkill
- golang-design-patternsSkill
- golang-documentationSkill
- golang-error-handlingSkill
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- golang-modernizeSkill
- golang-namingSkill
- golang-observabilitySkill
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- golang-samber-loSkill
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- golang-samber-oopsSkill
- golang-samber-roSkill
- golang-samber-slogSkill
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5 rules. 2 are common, 0 are distinctive, and 3 are very specific to this project.

Go Linting

Overview

Quick Reference

Configuration

Suppressing Lint Warnings

Development Workflow

Interpreting Output

Common Issues

Parallelizing Legacy Codebase Cleanup

Cross-References

Word for word · 0

Edited · 9

Wrote their own version · 1

golang-swagger

golang-google-wire

golang-pkg-go-dev

golang-refactoring

golang-gopls

Does it work?

No reviews yet

Your trail

Now do this for your own.