Golang Continuous Integration

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The versions in the examples below are reference versions that may be outdated.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

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