go backend

The go backend builds Go command-line packages with go install. Use the import path of the executable package, which may end in /cmd/<name> or include a major-version suffix such as /v4. Libraries belong in your application's go.mod.

Requirements

Install Go. mise builds each tool with the Go version configured for the project, and installs go first when it is in your config. Some packages also need Git, a C compiler (for cgo), or native libraries.

Usage

Install Go and Hivemind in the current project:

mise use [email protected] go:github.com/DarthSim/hivemind
mise exec -- hivemind --help

This writes both tools to mise.toml. Add -g to mise use for your global config.

[tools]
go = "1.26"
"go:github.com/DarthSim/hivemind" = "latest"

Run mise ls-remote go:github.com/DarthSim/hivemind to list versions, and pin one with mise use go:github.com/DarthSim/[email protected]. mise writes the executable into its own install directory, not your usual GOBIN.

Pinned versions

You can pin any module version, including an unreleased pseudo-version:

[tools]
"go:github.com/grafana/oats" = "v0.7.1-0.20260703092802-96201f1b8136"

To resolve an unreleased revision directly from version control instead of the module proxy, combine the pin with install_env:

[tools."go:github.com/grafana/oats"]
version = "v0.7.1-0.20260703092802-96201f1b8136"
install_env = { GOPROXY = "direct", GONOSUMDB = "github.com/grafana/oats" }

Private modules

Private modules use Go's normal Git authentication; mise's GitHub token does not replace it. Set GOPRIVATE in your environment or in mise's [env] so that mise asks Go for versions instead of querying the public proxy. mise does not read values set only with go env -w.

[env]
GOPRIVATE = "github.com/acme/*"

Go also uses GOPRIVATE as the default for GONOPROXY and GONOSUMDB. If you set those variables yourself, set each one for the proxy and checksum-database behavior you need.

Release age

With minimum_release_age, mise checks each candidate version's release date before it picks one. For a private module with many releases, which mise reads through go list, the first resolution can be slow.

If reading a version's date fails, for example because the proxy is unreachable or a version-control host times out, mise warns and accepts that version. On a bad network, a version newer than your cutoff can therefore be installed; the warning tells you when that happened.

Tool options

Set these on the tool's entry in [tools]. Options every backend accepts are described under tool options.

install_env

Set environment variables for go install. mise still sets GOBIN to the tool's install directory.

[tools]
"go:github.com/DarthSim/hivemind" = { version = "latest", install_env = { CGO_ENABLED = "0" } }

install_env does not affect version listing, so put GOPRIVATE in [env] instead; see private modules.

tags

Set Go build tags, passed as go install -tags. Give several as an array:

[tools]
"go:github.com/golang-migrate/migrate/v4/cmd/migrate" = { version = "latest", tags = ["postgres", "mysql"] }

A single tag can be a string: tags = "postgres".

Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to do
go install says it is not a main package	Use the import path of the executable package, not the repository root or a library package.
A private module cannot be found	Check that GOPRIVATE is set where mise can see it and that Git can authenticate to the host.
Compiler or Go version error	Use a Go version the package supports and install any native build dependencies.

Implementation: src/backend/go.rs.