golang-continuous-integration

Sets up the automatic checks that run on every pull request in a Go project — tests, linting, security scans, dependency bots — plus the pipeline that builds and ships the release.

WHEN TO USE

SCOPE

USE FOR

Set up a new Go project's CI from scratch: test, lint, security, then release workflows.
Add golangci-lint or govulncheck as a required check on every pull request.
Wire Dependabot or Renovate to open automated dependency-update pull requests.
Configure a GoReleaser pipeline that cross-compiles binaries for a CLI or a monorepo.
Add an AI-driven PR reviewer job, such as Claude Code or GitHub Copilot, to the pipeline.
Build and push multi-platform Docker images with SBOM and provenance attestations.

NOT FOR

Not for choosing or interpreting security-scan findings once they're reported.
Not for choosing, upgrading, or auditing which dependency versions to use.

This is a saved copy of the skill's SKILL.md instructions. It may differ from the upstream file or the version you install.

In this document (13)

Persona: You are a Go DevOps engineer. You treat CI as a quality gate — every pipeline decision is weighed against build speed, signal reliability, and security posture.

Modes:

Setup — adding CI to a project for the first time: start with the Quick Reference table, then generate workflows in this order: test → lint → security → release. Prefer the latest stable major version for each GitHub Action.
Improve — auditing or extending an existing pipeline: read current workflow files first, identify gaps against the Quick Reference table, then propose targeted additions without duplicating existing steps.

Dependencies:

goreleaser: go install github.com/goreleaser/goreleaser/v2@latest
gh: brew install gh

Go Continuous Integration

Set up production-grade CI/CD pipelines for Go projects using GitHub Actions.

Action Versions

The versions in the examples below are reference versions that may be outdated. GitHub Actions release frequently — the current major version for each action (actions/checkout, actions/setup-go, golangci/golangci-lint-action, codecov/codecov-action, goreleaser/goreleaser-action, etc.) may differ from what is shown here.

Quick Reference

Stage	Tool	Purpose
Test	`go test -race`	Unit + race detection
Coverage	`codecov/codecov-action`	Coverage reporting
Lint	`golangci-lint`	Comprehensive linting
Vet	`go vet`	Built-in static analysis
SAST	`gosec`, `CodeQL`, `Bearer`	Security static analysis
Vuln scan	`govulncheck`	Known vulnerability detection
Docker	`docker/build-push-action`	Multi-platform image builds
Deps	Dependabot / Renovate	Automated dependency updates
Release	GoReleaser	Automated binary releases
AI Review	Claude Code / Copilot	AI-powered PR review

Testing

.github/workflows/test.yml — see test.yml

Adapt the Go version matrix to match go.mod:

go 1.23   → matrix: ["1.23", "1.24", "1.25", "1.26", "1.27", "stable"]
go 1.24   → matrix: ["1.24", "1.25", "1.26", "1.27", "stable"]
go 1.25   → matrix: ["1.25", "1.26", "1.27", "stable"]
go 1.26   → matrix: ["1.26", "1.27", "stable"]
go 1.27   → matrix: ["1.27", "stable"]

Use fail-fast: false so a failure on one Go version doesn't cancel the others.

Go 1.27 raises the Darwin floor to macOS 13 (Ventura). macos-latest/macos-14+ runners are unaffected; only pin an older macos-12 runner if a project still needs it, and note it can no longer build with a Go 1.27 toolchain.

Test flags:

-race: CI MUST run tests with the -race flag (catches data races — undefined behavior in Go)
-shuffle=on: Randomize test order to catch inter-test dependencies
-coverprofile: Generate coverage data
git diff --exit-code: Fails if go mod tidy changes anything

Coverage Configuration

CI SHOULD enforce code coverage thresholds. Configure thresholds in codecov.yml at the repo root — see codecov.yml

Integration Tests

.github/workflows/integration.yml — see integration.yml

Use -count=1 to disable test caching — cached results can hide flaky service interactions.

Linting

golangci-lint MUST be run in CI on every PR. .github/workflows/lint.yml — see lint.yml

golangci-lint Configuration

Create .golangci.yml at the root of the project. See the samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-lint skill for the recommended configuration.

Security & SAST

.github/workflows/security.yml — see security.yml

CI MUST run govulncheck — it only reports vulnerabilities in code paths your project actually calls, unlike generic CVE scanners.

CodeQL results appear in the repository's Security tab.
Bearer is good at detecting sensitive data flow issues.

CodeQL Configuration

Create .github/codeql/codeql-config.yml to use the extended security query suite — see codeql-config.yml

Available query suites:

default: Standard security queries
security-extended: Extra security queries with slightly lower precision
security-and-quality: Security queries plus maintainability and reliability checks

Container Image Scanning

If the project produces Docker images, Trivy container scanning is included in the Docker workflow — see docker.yml

Dependency Management

Dependabot

.github/dependabot.yml — see dependabot.yml

Minor/patch updates are grouped into a single PR. Major updates get individual PRs since they may have breaking changes.

Auto-Merge for Dependabot

.github/workflows/dependabot-auto-merge.yml — see dependabot-auto-merge.yml

Security warning: This workflow requires contents: write and pull-requests: write — these are elevated permissions that allow merging PRs and modifying repository content. The if: github.actor == 'dependabot[bot]' guard restricts execution to Dependabot only. Do not remove this guard. Note that github.actor checks are not fully spoof-proof — branch protection rules are the real safety net. Ensure branch protection is configured (see Repository Security Settings) with required status checks and required approvals so that auto-merge only succeeds after all checks pass, regardless of who triggered the workflow.

Renovate (alternative)

Renovate is a more mature and configurable alternative to Dependabot. It supports automerge natively, grouping, scheduling, regex managers, and monorepo-aware updates. If Dependabot feels too limited, Renovate is the go-to choice.

Install the Renovate GitHub App, then create renovate.json at the repo root — see renovate.json

Key advantages over Dependabot:

gomodTidy: Automatically runs go mod tidy after updates
Native automerge: No separate workflow needed
Better grouping: More flexible rules for grouping PRs
Regex managers: Can update versions in Dockerfiles, Makefiles, etc.
Monorepo support: Handles Go workspaces and multi-module repos

Release Automation

GoReleaser automates binary builds, checksums, and GitHub Releases. The configuration varies significantly depending on the project type.

Release Workflow

.github/workflows/release.yml — see release.yml

Security warning: This workflow requires contents: write to create GitHub Releases. It is restricted to tag pushes (tags: ["v*"]) so it cannot be triggered by pull requests or branch pushes. Only users with push access to the repository can create tags.

GoReleaser for CLI/Programs

Programs need cross-compiled binaries, archives, and optionally Docker images.

.goreleaser.yml — see goreleaser-cli.yml

GoReleaser for Libraries

Libraries don't produce binaries — they only need a GitHub Release with a changelog. Use a minimal config that skips the build.

.goreleaser.yml — see goreleaser-lib.yml

For libraries, you may not even need GoReleaser — a simple GitHub Release created via the UI or gh release create is often sufficient.

GoReleaser for Monorepos / Multi-Binary

When a repository contains multiple commands (e.g., cmd/api/, cmd/worker/).

.goreleaser.yml — see goreleaser-monorepo.yml

Docker Build & Push

For projects that produce Docker images. This workflow builds multi-platform images, generates SBOM and provenance attestations, pushes to both GitHub Container Registry (GHCR) and Docker Hub, and includes Trivy container scanning.

.github/workflows/docker.yml — see docker.yml

Security warning: Permissions are scoped per job: the container-scan job only gets contents: read + security-events: write, while the docker job gets packages: write (to push to GHCR) and attestations: write + id-token: write (for provenance/SBOM signing). This ensures the scan job cannot push images even if compromised. The push flag is set to false on pull requests so untrusted code cannot publish images. The DOCKERHUB_USERNAME and DOCKERHUB_TOKEN secrets must be configured in the repository secrets settings — never hardcode credentials.

Key details:

QEMU + Buildx: Required for multi-platform builds (linux/amd64,linux/arm64). Remove platforms you don't need.
push: false on PRs: Images are built but never pushed on pull requests — this validates the Dockerfile without publishing untrusted code.
Metadata action: Automatically generates semver tags (v1.2.3 → 1.2.3, 1.2, 1), branch tags (main), and SHA tags.
Provenance + SBOM: provenance: mode=max and sbom: true generate supply chain attestations. These require attestations: write and id-token: write permissions.
Dual registry: Pushes to both GHCR (using GITHUB_TOKEN, no extra secret needed) and Docker Hub (requires DOCKERHUB_USERNAME + DOCKERHUB_TOKEN secrets). Remove the Docker Hub login and image line if not needed.
Trivy: Scans the built image for CRITICAL and HIGH vulnerabilities and uploads results to the Security tab.
Adapt the image names and registries to your project. For GHCR-only, remove the Docker Hub login step and the docker.io/ line from images:.

Repository Security Settings

Repository security settings (branch protection, workflow permissions, secrets, environments) form the security foundation for the CI pipeline — these are documented in repo-security.md.

AI-Driven Code Review

Add AI agents as PR reviewers alongside traditional static analysis. When loaded with this skill plugin, the agent applies the relevant Go skills per review area — catching architectural drift, logic bugs, missing error context, and concurrency hazards that linters cannot detect.

Cost note: AI review agents run concurrently per PR. For cost control, remove jobs you don't need or raise the PR trigger filter to specific branches only.

Each subsection below is a generated artifact targeting one specific reviewer — the linked asset file runs on a CI runner, not the developer's local harness, so its tool names and permission flags are deliberately literal rather than capability prose.

Claude Code

.github/workflows/ai-review.yml — see claude-code-review.yml

The workflow runs parallel jobs, each scoped to a set of review areas and priority level:

Job	Areas	Priority
`quality`	Code style, Naming, Documentation, Design patterns	Suggestion-first
`correctness`	Error handling, Code safety, Concurrency	Blocking-first
`security`	Security, Dependencies	Blocking-first
`quality-depth`	Tests, Performance, Observability, Modernize	Mixed

Additional skills that may be relevant depending on the project: golang-cli, golang-context, golang-data-structures, golang-database, golang-dependency-injection, or any library-specific skill.

The Claude Code GitHub App integration is configured via the /install-github-app command, which sets up the required API secrets.

GitHub Copilot

Copy skills into your repo, then append copilot-review-instructions.md to .github/copilot-instructions.md:

npx skills add https://github.com/samber/cc-skills-golang --agent github-copilot --skill '*' -y --copy
ln -s .agents .copilot

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Missing `-race` in CI tests	Always use `go test -race`
No `-shuffle=on`	Randomize test order to catch inter-test dependencies
Caching integration test results	Use `-count=1` to disable caching
`go mod tidy` not checked	Add `go mod tidy && git diff --exit-code` step
Missing `fail-fast: false`	One Go version failing shouldn't cancel other jobs
Not pinning action versions	GitHub Actions MUST use pinned major versions (e.g. `@vN`, not `@master`)
No `permissions` block	Follow least-privilege per job
Ignoring govulncheck findings	Fix or suppress with justification
No AI review in CI	Add Claude Code or Copilot review — catches logic, security, and architectural issues that static analysis misses

Related Skills

See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-lint, samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-security, samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-testing, samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-dependency-management, samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-modernize skills.

Account or credentials required

1 FOR YOU · 2 FOR THE AGENT

Items without a tag are required.

01
Install the GoReleaser CLI
Install GoReleaser with go install github.com/goreleaser/goreleaser/v2@latest before generating a release pipeline.
```
go install github.com/goreleaser/goreleaser/v2@latest
```
02
Install the GitHub CLI (gh)
Install the GitHub CLI with brew install gh; several workflow and repository-security steps assume it's available.
```
brew install gh
```
03
Optional Add DockerHub credentials as repo secrets
Set DOCKERHUB_USERNAME and DOCKERHUB_TOKEN as GitHub repository secrets before enabling the Docker workflow's DockerHub push step.
You set: DOCKERHUB_TOKEN

Setup details: The README mentions source builds, cloning, containers, hosting, OAuth, service accounts, or cloud projects.

This skill ships inside the Samber Golang Skills plugin.

Install just this skill

Run this outside your AI tool, using Node.js 22.20.0 or newer. Skills CLI 1.7.2 skips skill selection; prompts cancel installation without an interactive terminal. If choosing Project when asked about installation scope, open your project's folder before running this.

Install checklist

Check selected tools if a picker appears; Claude Code may be unchecked under Additional agents. ↑/↓ moves, Space toggles selections, Enter confirms.
Without a tool picker, check Installing to: for your intended tool. Stop if it names a different tool.
If asked, choose Symlink (Recommended) for shared files or Copy to all agents for separate copies; review the summary before confirming installation.
Install the find-skills skill? defaults to Yes, adding another skill for all projects. Choose No if you don't want that extra installation.

Skills CLI 1.7.2 sends install data to skills.sh by default, including the source, skill names, target tools and file details; GitHub sources are reported only when GitHub confirms the repository is public, while other remote sources can also be reported. Confirmed-public GitHub sources also trigger a security-audit request. Before installing, set the environment variable DO_NOT_TRACK=1 or DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 to disable both.

npx skills add samber/cc-skills-golang --skill "golang-continuous-integration" --full-depth

After installing for Claude Code, open it in the installation project if you chose Project; Global makes the skill available across projects on this computer. Once Claude Code loads the skill, its description helps Claude decide when to use it.

If installation created a top-level skills folder that did not exist when your Claude Code session started, run /reload-skills in that session. Run it again after later changes in that folder.

Install the whole plugin

This route installs the Samber Golang Skills plugin package selected for your AI tool.

Add Samuel's marketplace, then install the plugin

Type both lines inside a Claude Code session, not at your shell prompt. The marketplace is a separate repository of Samuel Berthe's, samber/cc, which also lists his other plugins. The second line opens the details of cc-skills-golang, which carries this repository's 46 Go skills; pick one of the install options shown and Claude Code installs it.

01
```
/plugin marketplace add samber/cc
```
02
```
/plugin install cc-skills-golang@samber
```

Run it in your terminal. It copies the whole repository, with its 46 skills, into ~/.openclaw/skills/cc-skills-golang, OpenClaw's skills folder in your home folder. To install it for one OpenClaw workspace instead, Samuel gives ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/cc-skills-golang as the folder.

git clone https://github.com/samber/cc-skills-golang.git ~/.openclaw/skills/cc-skills-golang

Run it in your terminal, not inside Gemini CLI; installing from GitHub needs git on your computer. It installs the repository, with its 46 skills, as a Gemini CLI extension. To update it later, run gemini extensions update cc-skills-golang.

gemini extensions install https://github.com/samber/cc-skills-golang

Run it in your terminal. It copies the whole repository, with its 46 skills, into ~/.cursor/skills/cc-skills-golang, Cursor's skills folder in your home folder.

git clone https://github.com/samber/cc-skills-golang.git  ~/.cursor/skills/cc-skills-golang

Type it in an interactive GitHub Copilot CLI session, not at your shell prompt. It installs the repository straight from GitHub as a plugin, with its 46 skills and no marketplace to add first.

/plugin install https://github.com/samber/cc-skills-golang

Run it in your terminal. It copies the whole repository, with its 46 skills, into ~/.agents/skills/cc-skills-golang in your home folder.

git clone https://github.com/samber/cc-skills-golang.git ~/.agents/skills/cc-skills-golang

Open plugin page ↗

What's inside

Files included with this skill.

View on GitHub

Same repository

golang-benchmark
Golang benchmarking, profiling, and performance measurement. Use when writing, running, or comparing Go benchmarks, profiling hot paths with pprof, interpreting CPU/memory/trace profiles, analyzing results with benchstat, setting up CI benchmark regression detection, or investigating production performance with Prometheus runtime metrics. Also use when the developer needs deep analysis on a specific performance indicator - this skill provides the measurement methodology, while samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-performance provides the optimization patterns.Read full description
golang-cli
Golang CLI application development. Use when building, modifying, or reviewing a Go CLI tool — especially for command structure, flag handling, configuration layering, version embedding, exit codes, I/O patterns, signal handling, shell completion, argument validation, and CLI unit testing. Also triggers when code uses cobra, viper, or urfave/cli. For cobra-specific APIs → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-spf13-cobra skill; for viper configuration layering → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-spf13-viper skill.Read full description
golang-code-style
Golang code style conventions — line length and breaking, variable declarations, control flow clarity, when comments help vs hurt. Use when writing or reviewing Go code, asking about style or clarity, or establishing project coding standards. Not for naming conventions (→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-naming skill), linter configuration (→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-lint skill), or doc comments (→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-documentation skill).Read full description
golang-concurrency
Golang concurrency patterns. Use when writing or reviewing concurrent Go code involving goroutines, channels, select, locks, sync primitives, errgroup, singleflight, worker pools, or fan-out/fan-in pipelines. Also triggers when you detect goroutine leaks, race conditions, channel ownership issues, or need to choose between channels and mutexes.Read full description
golang-context
Idiomatic context.Context usage in Golang — propagation through API boundaries, cancellation, timeouts and deadlines, request-scoped values, context.WithoutCancel for background work outliving requests. Apply when designing context propagation across layers, debugging leaked or unexpired contexts, choosing between context.Background/TODO/WithoutCancel, or storing values in context. Not for code that merely accepts ctx as first parameter.Read full description
golang-data-structures
Golang data structures — slices (internals, capacity growth, preallocation, slices package), maps (internals, hash buckets, maps package), arrays, container/list/heap/ring, strings.Builder vs bytes.Buffer, generic collections, pointers (unsafe.Pointer, weak.Pointer), and copy semantics. Use when choosing or optimizing Go data structures, implementing generic containers, using container/ packages, unsafe or weak pointers, or questioning slice/map internals. Not for applying optimization patterns once profiling has identified a bottleneck (→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-performance skill).Read full description