x/tools/gopls: Symbol Index: does not include symbols from non-dependency packages in dependency modules

[rostidev]

What version of Go, VS Code & VS Code Go extension are you using?

Version Information

• Run go version to get version of Go from the VS Code integrated terminal.
  • go version go1.25.6 X:nodwarf5 linux/amd64
• Run gopls -v version to get version of Gopls from the VS Code integrated terminal.
  • Build info

---

golang.org/x/tools/gopls v0.21.0
golang.org/x/tools/gopls@v0.21.0 h1:k8RlBm3ES+GVe+fbTSkzwKgarmNwN+6aDalb0T0xfag=
github.com/BurntSushi/toml@v1.5.0 h1:W5quZX/G/csjUnuI8SUYlsHs9M38FC7znL0lIO+DvMg=
github.com/fatih/camelcase@v1.0.0 h1:hxNvNX/xYBp0ovncs8WyWZrOrpBNub/JfaMvbURyft8=
github.com/fatih/gomodifytags@v1.17.1-0.20250423142747-f3939df9aa3c h1:dDSgAjoOMp8da3egfz0t2S+t8RGOpEmEXZubcGuc0Bg=
github.com/fatih/structtag@v1.2.0 h1:/OdNE99OxoI/PqaW/SuSK9uxxT3f/tcSZgon/ssNSx4=
github.com/fsnotify/fsnotify@v1.9.0 h1:2Ml+OJNzbYCTzsxtv8vKSFD9PbJjmhYF14k/jKC7S9k=
github.com/google/go-cmp@v0.7.0 h1:wk8382ETsv4JYUZwIsn6YpYiWiBsYLSJiTsyBybVuN8=
github.com/google/jsonschema-go@v0.3.0 h1:6AH2TxVNtk3IlvkkhjrtbUc4S8AvO0Xii0DxIygDg+Q=
github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk@v0.8.0 h1:jdsBtGzBLY287WKSIjYovOXAqtJkP+HtFQFKrZd4a6c=
github.com/yosida95/uritemplate/v3@v3.0.2 h1:Ed3Oyj9yrmi9087+NczuL5BwkIc4wvTb5zIM+UJPGz4=
golang.org/x/exp/typeparams@v0.0.0-20251023183803-a4bb9ffd2546 h1:HDjDiATsGqvuqvkDvgJjD1IgPrVekcSXVVE21JwvzGE=
golang.org/x/mod@v0.30.0 h1:fDEXFVZ/fmCKProc/yAXXUijritrDzahmwwefnjoPFk=
golang.org/x/sync@v0.18.0 h1:kr88TuHDroi+UVf+0hZnirlk8o8T+4MrK6mr60WkH/I=
golang.org/x/sys@v0.38.0 h1:3yZWxaJjBmCWXqhN1qh02AkOnCQ1poK6oF+a7xWL6Gc=
golang.org/x/telemetry@v0.0.0-20251111182119-bc8e575c7b54 h1:E2/AqCUMZGgd73TQkxUMcMla25GB9i/5HOdLr+uH7Vo=
golang.org/x/text@v0.31.0 h1:aC8ghyu4JhP8VojJ2lEHBnochRno1sgL6nEi9WGFGMM=
golang.org/x/tools@v0.39.1-0.20251205192105-907593008619 h1:NIdx9X+Z8lIV89t3Bs/bb4D/KTtHP4KYdUIFMiGlo6Y=
golang.org/x/vuln@v1.1.4 h1:Ju8QsuyhX3Hk8ma3CesTbO8vfJD9EvUBgHvkxHBzj0I=
honnef.co/go/tools@v0.7.0-0.dev.0.20251022135355-8273271481d0 h1:5SXjd4ET5dYijLaf0O3aOenC0Z4ZafIWSpjUzsQaNho=
mvdan.cc/gofumpt@v0.8.0 h1:nZUCeC2ViFaerTcYKstMmfysj6uhQrA2vJe+2vwGU6k=
mvdan.cc/xurls/v2@v2.6.0 h1:3NTZpeTxYVWNSokW3MKeyVkz/j7uYXYiMtXRUfmjbgI=
go: go1.25.6 X:nodwarf5

• Run code -v or code-insiders -v to get version of VS Code or VS Code Insiders.
  • 1.108.2
    c9d77990917f3102ada88be140d28b038d1dd7c7
    x64
• Check your installed extensions to get the version of the VS Code Go extension
  • 0.52.2
• Run Ctrl+Shift+P (Cmd+Shift+P on Mac OS) > Go: Locate Configured Go Tools command.

  • Tools Configuration

Environment

GOBIN: undefined
toolsGopath:
gopath: /home/huligan/go
GOROOT: /usr/lib/golang
PATH: /home/huligan/go/bin:/home/huligan/.local/bin:/home/huligan/bin:/home/huligan/.cargo/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin

Tools

go:	/usr/bin/go: go version go1.25.6 X:nodwarf5 linux/amd64

gotests:	not installed
impl:	/home/huligan/go/bin/impl	(version: v1.5.0 built with go: go1.25.6)
goplay:	not installed
dlv:	/home/huligan/go/bin/dlv	(version: v1.26.0 built with go: go1.25.6)
gopls:	/home/huligan/go/bin/gopls	(version: v0.21.0 built with go: go1.25.6)

Go env

Workspace Folder (test): /home/huligan/develop/test

AR='ar'
CC='gcc'
CGO_CFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_CPPFLAGS=''
CGO_CXXFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_ENABLED='1'
CGO_FFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CGO_LDFLAGS='-O2 -g'
CXX='g++'
GCCGO='gccgo'
GO111MODULE=''
GOAMD64='v1'
GOARCH='amd64'
GOAUTH='netrc'
GOBIN=''
GOCACHE='/home/huligan/.cache/go-build'
GOCACHEPROG=''
GODEBUG=''
GOENV='/home/huligan/.config/go/env'
GOEXE=''
GOEXPERIMENT='nodwarf5'
GOFIPS140='off'
GOFLAGS=''
GOGCCFLAGS='-fPIC -m64 -pthread -Wl,--no-gc-sections -fmessage-length=0 -ffile-prefix-map=/tmp/go-build868102985=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches'
GOHOSTARCH='amd64'
GOHOSTOS='linux'
GOINSECURE=''
GOMOD='/home/huligan/develop/test/go.mod'
GOMODCACHE='/home/huligan/go/pkg/mod'
GONOPROXY=''
GONOSUMDB=''
GOOS='linux'
GOPATH='/home/huligan/go'
GOPRIVATE=''
GOPROXY='https://proxy.golang.org,direct'
GOROOT='/usr/lib/golang'
GOSUMDB='sum.golang.org'
GOTELEMETRY='off'
GOTELEMETRYDIR='/home/huligan/.config/go/telemetry'
GOTMPDIR=''
GOTOOLCHAIN='local'
GOTOOLDIR='/usr/lib/golang/pkg/tool/linux_amd64'
GOVCS=''
GOVERSION='go1.25.6 X:nodwarf5'
GOWORK=''
PKG_CONFIG='pkg-config'

Share the Go related settings you have added/edited

Run Preferences: Open Settings (JSON) command to open your settings.json file.
Share all the settings with the go. or ["go"] or gopls prefixes.

Describe the bug

Previously not used packages can't be found by the Ctrl+T (Show all symbols) functionality.
All packages must be reachable through the Ctrl+T (Show all symbols) functionality.
This is one of the basic and must have functionalities of any IDE!

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Create a simple Go module (for example example.com/test) with an empty main function in main.go file
2. When inside the main.go file press Ctrl+T and try to find any not previously used package, for instance http - you will not find it
3. Add some code that uses that package
4. Remove that just added code, including all import statements
5. Try to repeat step 2 - now it works properly
6. Restart VS Code and try again from the beginning - the same result

Screenshots or recordings

[h9jiang]

Hi @rostidev

Thanks for raising this. Based on the fact you are seeing results from workspace/symbol in the last screen shot I assume you are using "ui.navigation.symbolScope": "all",.

Based on the description of the doc of the setting

When the scope is "all", gopls searches all loaded packages, including dependencies and the standard library.

I think maybe the key here, is the word "loaded".

When you open a vscode session and open a workspace, a new "gopls" process got spinned up. (When you close the session, the gopls terminated as well). So every time when you restart vscode, the previously running gopls died and new gopls process got created. This is why you can re-produce this.

After gopls start, you have an empty main.go that does not import anything. Gopls does not read stdlib. Only if you type "var _ http.Client" it start reading the stdlib and load it. Even if you remove this line of code later, the stdlib is already loaded, so you can still see results.

I'm not very familiar with the detail of how and when gopls load a dependency package maybe @adonovan could have a better answer for you.

[gopherbot]

Change https://go.dev/cl/741261 mentions this issue: gopls/internal/settings: correct SymbolScope documentation

[adonovan]

The feature appears to be working as intended: the symbol index, even with SymbolScope="all", includes all the packages of your workspace (e.g. as defined by a go.work file, or a main module) including its transitive dependencies. It does not include all of the standard library, or all package in all module dependencies.

I have however fixed a minor documentation issue.

[rostidev]

Hi @h9jiang and thank you for quick response.

My ~/.config/Code/User/settings.json doesn't have any definition of ui.navigation.symbolScope, so it uses its default value that is indeed all.

I did another experiment. If I start VS Code with main.go that imports container/list Ctrl+T can see the list package:

But it still can't see any other package from the standard library, like http or io:

If then I click on the container/list import or on the list.List type and then press F12 (Go to Definition) and from there chose some Go files from the fs package that is located inside the fs sub-directory of the io package/sub-directory:

Then Ctrl+T see the io not as a package but as a directory, no metter if do that when tab of the main.go or of the fs.go is active:

And the http package still can't be found in Ctrl+T:

But the fs package already can:

So it seems like it never loads all available packages but only previously used in the current VS Code session packages. If I open any file of the http or the io packages Ctrl+T will start finding those packages as well. And before it loaded any file of previously not loaded package it can see the sub-directory of that package instead of the package itself.

[rostidev]

Hi @adonovan

I think this behavior, shown in the series of screenshots of my previous message, is not consistent and not very useful. For comparison in IDEs of JetBrains I can see all parts of the standard library and of all included 3rd party libraries. I expect the same in VS Code with Go plugin as well. As far as I know JetBrains don't use LSP but their own code analyzer, though.

We use IDE to find those things instead of trying to remember they all. Remembering internals of the standard and any 3rd party libraries is a skill from 80s and 90s and not relevant in 2026, imho.

[firelizzard18]

This probably isn't relevant because I can (and just did) set the symbol navigation scope to "workspace", but just to provide an alternative perspective: personally I don't ever want to see external packages anywhere besides code completion. Sure, I don't want to have to remember the API of external packages but that's what pkg.go.dev and code completion are for.