Go for Visual Studio Code

<!--TODO: We should add a badge for the build status or link to the build dashboard.-->

The VS Code Go extension
provides rich language support for the
Go programming language.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code 1.90 or newer (or editors compatible with VS Code 1.90+ APIs)
• Go 1.21 or newer.

Quick Start

Welcome! 👋🏻<br/>
Whether you are new to Go or an experienced Go developer, we hope this
extension fits your needs and enhances your development experience.

1. Install Go 1.21 or newer if you haven't already.

2. Install the VS Code Go extension.

3. 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.

4. 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.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/images/gettingstarted.gif" width=75%> <br/> <em>(Install Missing Tools)</em> </p>

You are ready to Go :-)    🎉🎉🎉

What's next

• Explore more features of the VS Code Go extension.
• View the
  settings documentation
  and advanced topics to
  customize the extension.
• View the tools documentation
  for a complete list of tools the VS Code Go extension depends on. You can
  install additional tools and update them by using "Go: Install/Update Tools".
• Solve issues with the
  general troubleshooting
  and debugging troubleshooting
  guides.
• file an issue for
  problems with the extension.
• Start a GitHub discussion
  or get help on Stack Overflow.
• Explore Go language resources on go.dev/learn and
  golang.org/help.

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.

<p align=center> <img src="docs/images/completion-signature-help.gif" width=75%> <br/> <em>(Code completion and Signature Help)</em> </p>

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.

<p align=center> <img src="docs/images/toggletestfile.gif" width=75%> <br/><em>(Toggle Test File)</em></p>

⚠️ 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.

Pre-release version

If you'd like to get early access to new features and bug fixes, you can use the
pre-release extension. Following the vscode's convention,
we use the minor version of the extension version number to distinguish stable
and pre-release versions (0.ODD_NUMBER.patch for pre-release, 0.EVEN_NUMBER.patch
for stable release).

To install the pre-release version, use the drop-down list
to select "Install Pre-Release Version", or if already installed the Go extension,
use the "Switch to Pre-Release Version" option in the Visual Studio Code
extension management page. For more details about this mechanism, see the
Visual Studio Code's 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.

Support Policy

The Go extension is maintained by engineers on the
Go tools team,
who actively monitor the VS Code Go
and the Go
issue trackers.

We support only the latest stable and pre-release versions of the extension.

Supported Go and tools

The Go extension follows the Go Release Policy,
meaning that it officially supports the two most recent major Go releases.
The Go team maintains best-effort support for the last three major Go versions.

The Go extension relies on tools
like gopls and dlv for its core functionalities and they have their own release
policy and schedule. We test only against the latest versions of these tools.

In case you need to work with an older version of Go, please check
the Compatibility page and manually install the compatible version of
the extension and tools.

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