Go Nightly for VS Code
ATTENTION: This is the preview version of the VS Code Go extension, used for early feedback and testing.
It is published nightly and contains previews of new features and bug fixes that are still under review or test. Therefore, this extension can be broken or unstable at times. If you are looking for the stable version,
please install the default VS Code Go extension instead.
NOTE: The stable Go extension (golang.go) cannot be used at the same time as the preview Go Nightly extension (golang.go-nightly). If you have installed both extensions, you must disable or uninstall one of them. For further guidance, read the documentation on how to disable an extension.
Differences between Go and Go Nightly
- Go Nightly is released more frequently than the stable version (once per weekday).
- Go Nightly includes features and bug fixes that are not yet finalized.
- Go Nightly may use pre-release versions of tools (such as
gopls) instead of released versions.
- For more information about Go Nightly, read the Go Nightly documentation.
The VS Code Go extension
provides rich language support for the
Go programming language.
Requirements
- Visual Studio Code 1.75 or newer (or editors compatible with VS Code 1.75+ APIs)
- Go 1.19 or newer.
Quick Start
Welcome! 👋🏻
Whether you are new to Go or an experienced Go developer, we hope this
extension fits your needs and enhances your development experience.
Install Go 1.19 or newer if you haven't already.
Install the VS Code Go extension.
Open any Go file or go.mod file to automatically activate the extension. The
Go status bar appears in the
bottom right corner of the window and displays your Go version.
The extension depends on go, gopls (the Go language server), and optional
tools depending on your settings. If gopls is missing, the extension will
try to install it. The :zap: sign next to the Go version indicates
the language server is running, and you are ready to go.
(Install Missing Tools)
You are ready to Go :-) 🎉🎉🎉
What's next
If you are new to Go, this article provides
the overview on Go code organization and basic go commands. Watch "Getting
started with VS Code Go" for an explanation of how to build your first Go
application using VS Code Go.
Feature highlights
- IntelliSense - Results appear for symbols as you type.
- Code navigation - Jump to or peek at a symbol's declaration.
- Code editing - Support for saved snippets, formatting and code organization,
and automatic organization of imports.
- Diagnostics - Build, vet, and lint errors shown as you type or on save.
- Enhanced support for testing and debugging
See the full feature breakdown for more details.
(Code completion and Signature Help)
In addition to integrated editing features, the extension provides several
commands for working with Go files. You can access any of these by opening the
Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P on Linux/Windows and Cmd+Shift+P on Mac), and
then typing in the command name. See the
full list of commands provided by this
extension.
(Toggle Test File)
⚠️ Note: the default syntax highlighting for Go files is provided by a
TextMate rule embedded in VS
Code, not by this extension.
For better syntax highlighting, we recommend enabling
semantic highlighting
by turning on Gopls' ui.semanticTokens setting.
"gopls": { "ui.semanticTokens": true }
Setting up your workspace
The VS Code Go extension supports both GOPATH and Go modules modes.
Go modules are used to manage dependencies in
recent versions of Go. Modules replace the GOPATH-based approach to specifying
which source files are used in a given build, and they are the default build
mode in go1.16+. We highly recommend Go development in module mode. If you are
working on existing projects, please consider migrating to modules.
Unlike the traditional GOPATH mode, module mode does not require the workspace
to be located under GOPATH nor to use a specific structure. A module is
defined by a directory tree of Go source files with a go.mod file in the
tree's root directory.
Your project may involve one or more modules. If you are working with multiple
modules or uncommon project layouts, you will need to configure your workspace
by using Workspace Folders. See the
Supported workspace layouts documentation for more information.
Preview version
If you'd like to get early access to new features and bug fixes, you can use the
nightly build of this extension. Learn how to install it in by reading the
Go Nightly documentation.
Telemetry
VS Code Go extension relies on the Go Telemetry to
learn insights about the performance and stability of the extension and the
language server (gopls).
Go Telemetry data uploading is disabled by default and can be enabled
with the following command:
go run golang.org/x/telemetry/cmd/gotelemetry@latest on
After telemetry is enabled, the language server will upload metrics and stack
traces to telemetry.go.dev. You can inspect what
data is collected and can be uploaded by running:
go run golang.org/x/telemetry/cmd/gotelemetry@latest view
If we get enough adoption, this data can significantly advance the pace of
the Go extension development, and help us meet a higher standard
of reliability. For example:
- Even with semi-automated crash
reports
in VS Code, we've seen several crashers go unreported for weeks or months.
- Even with a suite of
benchmarks,
some performance regressions don't show up in our benchmark environment (such
as the completion bug mentioned below!).
- Even with lots of great
ideas
for how to improve gopls, we have limited resources. Telemetry can help us
identify which new features are most important, and which existing features
aren't being used or aren't working well.
These are just a few ways that telemetry can improve gopls. The telemetry blog
post series contains many more.
Go telemetry is designed to be transparent and privacy-preserving. Learn more at
https://go.dev/doc/telemetry.
Contributing
We welcome your contributions and thank you for working to improve the Go
development experience in VS Code. If you would like to help work on the VS Code
Go extension, see our
contribution guide to
learn how to build and run the VS Code Go extension locally and contribute to
the project.
Code of Conduct
This project follows the
Go Community Code of Conduct. If you encounter a
conduct-related issue, please mail conduct@golang.org.
License
MIT
