Go

mise can be used to install and manage multiple versions of go on the same system.

The following are instructions for using the go mise core plugin. This is used when there isn't a git plugin installed named "go". If you want to use asdf-golang then use mise plugins install go GIT_URL.

The code for this is inside the mise repository at ./src/plugins/core/go.rs.

Usage

The following installs the latest version of go-1.21.x (if some version of 1.21.x is not already installed) and makes it the global default:

mise use -g [email protected]

Minor go versions 1.20 and below require specifying prefix before the version number because the first version of each series was released without a .0 suffix, making 1.20 an exact version match:

mise use -g go@prefix:1.20

.go-version file support

mise uses a mise.toml or .tool-versions file for auto-switching between software versions. However, it can also read go-specific version files named .go-version.

See idiomatic version files

Default packages

::: warning Planned deprecation Default package files are deprecated. They are still supported for now, but mise will start warning in 2026.11.0 and support will be removed in 2027.11.0.

For Go CLIs, install the tool directly with the go: backend:

[tools]
"go:github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit" = "latest"

For packages that really should be installed into every Go version, use a tool-level postinstall hook:

[tools]
go = { version = "1.25", postinstall = "go install github.com/daixiang0/gci@latest" }

:::

mise can automatically install a default set of packages right after installing a new go version. To use this legacy feature, provide a $HOME/.default-go-packages file that lists one package per line, for example:

github.com/daixiang0/gci # allows comments
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit

Tool Options

The following tool-options are available for the go backend. These options go in the [tools] section in mise.toml.

install_env

Set environment variables for default package installation and install-time verification commands run by the core go backend:

[tools]
go = { version = "latest", install_env = { GOPRIVATE = "github.com/acme/*" } }

Settings