VS Code extension doesn't work on monorepos #6110
Description
Description of the problem
Given a monorepo inside the user's home:
~: User's home folderproject: Monorepo rootapi: go codesubdir: example subdirectorymyfile.go: example file
frontend: website that uses api
Opening project folder in VS Code with the go extension installed crashes and doesn't mark any lint errors.
[error] level=error msg="[linters_context] typechecking error: pattern ./...: directory prefix . does not contain main module or its selected dependencies"
In contrast, if I open the api folder, the linter works.
Basically, these commands should work:
cd ~/project && golangci-lint runcd ~/project && golangci-lint run ./api/...And from a UX perspective, in my opinion, this should also work: (Because it's unexpected that the run command must run from the go module directory)
cd ~/project/api/subdir && golangci-lint run ./myfile.goRelated to: #828 (comment) #6057
Possible fix suggestion
When running golangci-lint run, don't error if the folder isn't a go module. Instead, keep going and ignore all the files/directories that are not a go module. When it finds a module, then run the lint with that configuration. And if it doesn't find any go module, then error.
This solution is nice because you can run different configurations using the same run command.
Consider also checking the parent directories recursively, to find a go module.
How did you install golangci-lint?
Via editor/IDE
Version of golangci-lint
$ golangci-lint --version
golangci-lint has version 2.5.0 built with go1.25.1 from ff63786 on 2025-09-21T18:53:13ZConfiguration
Configuration not relevant
Go environment
Go environment not relevant
Verbose output of running
$ golangci-lint cache clean
$ cd ~/project
$ golangci-lint run ./api/... -v
INFO golangci-lint has version 2.5.0 built with go1.25.1 from ff63786 on 2025-09-21T18:53:13Z
INFO [config_reader] Config search paths: [./ /Users/me/project/api /Users/me/project /Users/me/Projects /Users/me /Users /]
INFO maxprocs: Leaving GOMAXPROCS=10: CPU quota undefined
INFO [goenv] Read go env for 7.046ms: map[string]string{"GOCACHE":"/Users/me/Library/Caches/go-build", "GOROOT":"/opt/homebrew/Cellar/go/1.25.1/libexec"}
INFO [lintersdb] Active 5 linters: [errcheck govet ineffassign staticcheck unused]
INFO [loader] Go packages loading at mode 8767 (exports_file|imports|types_sizes|compiled_files|deps|files|name) took 28.981292ms
INFO [runner/filename_unadjuster] Pre-built 0 adjustments in 141.584µs
ERRO [linters_context] typechecking error: pattern ./api/...: directory prefix api does not contain main module or its selected dependencies
INFO [linters_context/goanalysis] analyzers took 850.542µs with top 10 stages: fact_deprecated: 709.5µs, cgocall: 113.125µs, config: 27.917µs
INFO [runner] processing took 1.374µs with stages: max_same_issues: 250ns, path_absoluter: 208ns, exclusion_rules: 167ns, fixer: 125ns, exclusion_paths: 84ns, sort_results: 84ns, nolint_filter: 83ns, path_prettifier: 42ns, path_shortener: 42ns, severity-rules: 42ns, filename_unadjuster: 42ns, generated_file_filter: 41ns, uniq_by_line: 41ns, max_per_file_from_linter: 41ns, max_from_linter: 41ns, source_code: 41ns, invalid_issue: 0s, cgo: 0s, path_relativity: 0s, diff: 0s
INFO [runner] linters took 1.650875ms with stages: goanalysis_metalinter: 1.60025ms
0 issues.
INFO File cache stats: 0 entries of total size 0B
INFO Memory: 2 samples, avg is 35.4MB, max is 35.4MB
INFO Execution took 38.923209ms A minimal reproducible example or link to a public repository
Already described before.
Just use any working go codebase using golangci-lint, wrap it in a folder (example), and wrap that into another folder (monorepo):
monorepo: root of the monorepoexample: Any codebase usinggolangci-lint
Validation
- Yes, I've included all information above (version, config, etc.).
Supporter
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