Skip to main content

Go

Official module: dagger/go

Install with dagger mod install github.com/dagger/go.

What It Is​

The Go module is for Go workspaces that want one shared way to test, lint, and run go generate.

It scans the workspace for go.mod files, treats each one as a Go module, and gives you workspace-level functions that run across all of them. That makes it a good fit for monorepos, service repos, and libraries with generated code.

Use It For​

  • Test every Go module with the same command.
  • Run golangci-lint across the workspace.
  • Run go generate before a build or PR.
  • Skip tests, lint, or generation in selected modules with marker files.

Main Workflows​

  • test-all: run Go tests in every discovered Go module.
  • lint-all: run golangci-lint in every discovered Go module.
  • generate-all: run go generate in every discovered Go module.

How to Use It​

Install the module, then run its checks:

dagger mod install github.com/dagger/go

dagger check               # run every check in the workspace
dagger check go:test-all   # run Go tests across every module
dagger check go:lint-all   # run golangci-lint across every module

test-all and lint-all discover every go.mod in the workspace, treat each as a Go module, and run against all of them. Tests run through an OpenTelemetry-aware runner, so individual Go tests appear as spans in the Dagger TUI and Dagger Cloud. Lint runs a pinned golangci-lint and picks up each module's .golangci.* config.

Run the generator when generated Go files are part of normal development, such as mocks, embedded assets, protobuf output, or code produced by go generate:

dagger generate go:generate-all

generate-all runs only in modules that contain a //go:generate directive, and returns the result as a changeset to review before applying.

Settings​

List the current settings and their values with dagger settings go, then set one with dagger settings go <key> <value>. Settings are stored in .dagger/config.toml under [modules.go.settings].

  • version (default 1.26): the Go toolchain version used to build the test and generate containers (golang:<version>-alpine). Set this so every module is tested and generated against the same Go version. Lint uses a pinned golangci-lint image and is unaffected.
  • includeExtraFiles (default empty): extra workspace-root path patterns mounted alongside each module's Go source. Go source, go.mod/go.sum/go.work, and testdata/ directories are already included automatically; use this for inputs those patterns miss, such as embedded non-Go assets, generator inputs, or fixtures kept outside testdata/.
  • skipTestFilename (default .dagger-skip-go-test): the name of the marker file that excludes a module from test-all. To skip a module's tests, create an empty file with this name at the module root. The marker also applies to any nested modules, and placing it at the workspace root skips tests everywhere.
  • skipLintFilename (default .dagger-skip-go-lint): the marker filename that excludes a module from lint-all, with the same placement rules.
  • skipGenerateFilename (default .dagger-skip-go-generate): the marker filename that excludes a module from generate-all, with the same placement rules.

The skip markers work by file presence: the setting only renames the marker file the module looks for, which is rarely needed. To exclude a module from a workflow, add the marker file; to include it again, delete the file.

# Pin the Go version for the whole workspace
dagger settings go version 1.25

# Exclude one module from linting by adding its marker file
touch ./legacy-service/.dagger-skip-go-lint

List-valued settings such as includeExtraFiles are edited directly in .dagger/config.toml:

[modules.go.settings]
version = "1.25"
includeExtraFiles = ["Makefile", "tools/**"]

Workspace Fit​

Use this module when the repo contains one or more Go modules. It is especially useful when several Go modules should share the same Go version and the same CI checks.

To exclude a single module from a workflow, add its skip marker file instead of splitting the repo into separate check systems.

Source​

Source repo: github.com/dagger/go