setup-go/docs/advanced-usage.md

Advanced Usage

• Using the go-version input
  • Specifying a go version
  • Matrix testing
• Using the go-version-file input
• Check latest version
• Caching
  • Caching in monorepos
  • Caching in multi-module repositories
  • Multi-target builds
  • Cache invalidation on source changes
  • Restore-only caches
  • Parallel builds
• Outputs
• Using setup-go on GHES

Using the go-version input

Specifying a Go version

For repeatable builds, specify the exact major, minor, and patch version (such as 1.25.5):

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.25.5'
  - run: go run hello.go

• The only downside is that setup may take a little longer. If the exact version is not already installed on the runner due to more recent versions, the exact version will have to be downloaded.

You can specify only a major and minor version if you are okay with the most recent patch version being used:

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.25'
  - run: go run hello.go

• There will be a single patch version already installed on each runner for every minor version of Go that is supported.
• The preinstalled patch version is generally the latest available. When a new patch is released, it replaces the previously preinstalled version on the runner.
• Using the most recent patch version speeds up setup because the required Go version is already installed on the runner and no download is needed.

To try a pre-release: Download and use beta or RC Go versions as needed.

# RC version
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.25.0-rc.2'
  - run: go version

# Beta version
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.19.0-beta.1'
  - run: go version

Using stable/oldstable aliases:

If stable is provided, the action will get the latest stable version from the go-versions repository manifest.

If oldstable is provided, the action resolves it to the latest patch release of the previous stable Go minor version (for example, if the latest stable is 1.25.x, oldstable resolves to 1.24.x, where x is the latest patch release).

Note: Using these aliases will result in the same version as when using the corresponding minor release with the check-latest input set to true.

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: 'stable'
  - run: go run hello.go

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: 'oldstable'
  - run: go run hello.go

You can also use SemVer's version range syntax, for instance:

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '^1.25.1'
  - run: go version

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '>=1.24.0-rc.1'
  - run: go version

Matrix testing

Using setup-go it's possible to use the matrix syntax to install several versions of Go:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        go: [ '1.24', '1.25' ]
    name: Go ${{ matrix.go }} sample
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - name: Setup go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v6
        with:
          go-version: ${{ matrix.go }}
      - run: go run hello.go

Exclude a specific Go version:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
        go: [ '1.22', '1.24', '1.25']
        exclude:
          - os: macos-latest
            go: '1.22'
          - os: windows-latest
            go: '1.25'
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - name: Setup go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v6
        with:
          go-version: ${{ matrix.go }}
      - run: go run hello.go

Using the go-version-file input

setup-go action can read the Go version from a version file. go-version-file input is used for specifying the path to the version file. If the file supplied to the go-version-file input doesn't exist, the action will fail with an error. This input supports go.mod, go.work, .go-version, and .tool-versions files.

If both the go-version and the go-version-file inputs are provided then the go-version input is used. The .tool-versions file supports version specifications in accordance with asdf standards, adhering to Semantic Versioning (semver).

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version-file: 'path/to/go.mod'  # Read Go version from go.mod
  - run: go version

• Uses the toolchain directive if present, otherwise the action falls back to the go directive.

• The go directive in go.mod can specify a patch version or omit it altogether (e.g., go 1.25.0 or go 1.25). If a patch version is specified, that specific patch version will be used. If no patch version is specified, it will search for the latest available patch version in the cache, versions-manifest.json, and the official Go language website, in that order.

The action will search for the go.mod file relative to the repository root.

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version-file: '.go-version' # Read Go version from .go-version
  - run: go version

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version-file: '.tool-versions' # Read Go version from .tool-versions
  - run: go version

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version-file: 'go.work' # Read Go version from go.work
  - run: go version

Check latest version

The check-latest flag defaults to false. Use the default or set check-latest to false if you prefer stability and if you want to ensure a specific Go version is always used.

If check-latest is set to true, the action first checks if the cached version is the latest one. If the locally cached version is not the most up-to-date, a Go version will then be downloaded. Set check-latest to true if you want the most up-to-date Go version to always be used. It supports major (e.g., "1") and major.minor (e.g., "1.25") version selectors, always resolving to the latest matching patch release.

Setting check-latest to true has performance implications as downloading Go versions is slower than using cached versions.

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.25'
      check-latest: true
  - run: go run hello.go

Caching

Caching in monorepos

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.25'
      cache-dependency-path: subdir/go.sum
  - run: go run hello.go

Caching in multi-module repositories

cache-dependency-path input accepts glob patterns and multi-line values:

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.25'
      cache-dependency-path: '**/go.sum'
  - run: go run hello.go

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.25'
      cache-dependency-path: |
        subdir/go.sum
        tools/go.sum
  - run: go run hello.go

Multi-target builds

cache-dependency-path isn’t limited to dependency files (like go.sum). It can also include files that capture build settings (for example, GOOS/GOARCH). This allows separate caches per target platform (OS/architecture) and helps avoid reusing caches across incompatible builds.

env:
  GOOS: ...
  GOARCH: ...

steps:
  - run: echo "$GOOS $GOARCH" > env.txt

  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.25'
      cache-dependency-path: |
        go.sum
        env.txt
  - run: go run hello.go    

Cache invalidation on source changes

Besides dependencies, the action can also cache build outputs (the GOCACHE directory). By default, this cache is not updated based on source changes to help avoid unpredictable and frequent cache invalidation. To invalidate the cache when source files change, include source files in the cache-dependency-path input.

Note: Including patterns like **/*.go can create new caches on many commits, increasing cache storage and potentially slowing workflows due to more frequent uploads/downloads.

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6
  - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
    with:
      go-version: '1.25'
      cache-dependency-path: |
        go.sum
        **/*.go
  - run: go run hello.go

Restore-only caches

Restore caches without saving new entries. This can help reduce cache writes and storage usage in workflows that only need to read from the cache:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - name: Setup go
        id: setup-go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v6
        with:
          go-version: '1.25.5'
          cache: false
      # Capture Go cache locations
      - name: Set Go cache variables (Linux/macOS)
        if: runner.os != 'Windows'
        run: |
          echo "GO_MOD_CACHE=$(go env GOMODCACHE)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
          echo "GO_BUILD_CACHE=$(go env GOCACHE)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: Set Go cache variables (Windows)
        if: runner.os == 'Windows'
        shell: pwsh
        run: |
          echo "GO_MOD_CACHE=$(go env GOMODCACHE)" | Out-File $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
          echo "GO_BUILD_CACHE=$(go env GOCACHE)"   | Out-File $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
      # Normalize runner.arch to lowercase to ensure consistent cache keys
      - name: Normalize runner architecture (Linux/macOS)
        if: runner.os != 'Windows'
        shell: bash
        run: echo "ARCH=$(echo '${{ runner.arch }}' | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: Normalize runner architecture (Windows)
        if: runner.os == 'Windows'
        shell: pwsh
        run: |
          $arch = "${{ runner.arch }}".ToLower()
          echo "ARCH=$arch" | Out-File $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
      - name: Set cache OS suffix for Linux
        if: runner.os == 'Linux'
        shell: bash
        run: echo "CACHE_OS_SUFFIX=$ImageOS-" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: Restore Go cache
        id: go-cache
        uses: actions/cache/restore@v5
        with:
          path: |
            ${{ env.GO_MOD_CACHE }}
            ${{ env.GO_BUILD_CACHE }}
          key: setup-go-${{ runner.os }}-${{ env.ARCH }}-${{ env.CACHE_OS_SUFFIX }}go-${{ steps.setup-go.outputs.go-version }}-${{ hashFiles('**/go.mod') }}
      - name: Download modules
        run: go mod download
      - name: Build
        run: go build ./...

If there are several builds on the same repo, it may make sense to create a cache in one build and use it in others. The action actions/cache/restore should be used in this case.

Parallel builds

To avoid race conditions during parallel builds, either use distinct cache keys with actions/cache, or create the cache in only one build and restore it in the other builds.

Outputs

go-version

Using go-version output, it's possible to get the precise Go version installed by the action. This output is useful when the input go-version is given as a range, but down the line you need to operate (such as in an if: statement) with the exact installed version (e.g. 1.24.11).

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
        id: go124
        with:
          go-version: '^1.24'
      - run: echo "Installed Go version: ${{ steps.go124.outputs.go-version }}"

cache-hit

cache-hit output is available with a boolean value that indicates whether a cache hit occurred on the primary key:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6
      - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
        id: go124
        with:
          go-version: '1.24'
          cache: true
      - run: echo "Was the Go cache restored? ${{ steps.go124.outputs.cache-hit }}" # true if cache-hit occurred

Using setup-go on GHES

Avoiding rate limit issues

setup-go comes pre-installed on the appliance with GHES if Actions is enabled. When dynamically downloading Go distributions, setup-go downloads distributions from actions/go-versions on github.com (outside of the appliance).

These calls to actions/go-versions are made via unauthenticated requests, which are limited to 60 requests per hour per IP. If more requests are made within the time frame, then the action leverages the raw API to retrieve the version-manifest. This approach does not impose a rate limit and hence facilitates unrestricted consumption. This is particularly beneficial for GHES runners, which often share the same IP, to avoid the quick exhaustion of the unauthenticated rate limit. If that fails as well the action will try to download versions directly from go.dev.

If that fails as well you can get a higher rate limit with generating a personal access token on github.com and passing it as the token input to the action:

uses: actions/setup-go@v6
with:
  token: ${{ secrets.GH_DOTCOM_TOKEN }}
  go-version: '1.25'

No access to github.com

If the runner is not able to access github.com, any Go versions requested during a workflow run must come from the runner's tool cache. See "Setting up the tool cache on self-hosted runners without internet access" for more information.