Installing Go

You already know how to program. What you're missing is Go specifically — the compiler, the standard library, and the handful of commands that turn .go files into running programs. This lesson gets that onto your machine.

Getting the toolchain

The straightforward route is go.dev/dl, which has installers for macOS, Windows, and Linux. If you'd rather use a package manager, that works too:

brew install go        # macOS (Homebrew)
sudo apt install golang-go   # Debian/Ubuntu
choco install golang   # Windows (Chocolatey)

Any of these gets you the same thing: the go binary, plus the standard library it ships with.

Confirming it works

Open a terminal and check the version:

go version
# go version go1.25.0 darwin/arm64

If that prints a version number, you're set up correctly. If it says command not found, the installer likely didn't add Go's bin directory to your PATH — the installer's instructions cover the fix for your OS.

You don't need to configure GOPATH

If you've read older Go tutorials, you may have seen instructions about setting up a GOPATH and putting all your code inside it. Ignore that — it describes a workflow from before 2019. Modern Go uses modules, which are the default and require no directory-layout ceremony. You can create a Go project anywhere on disk, in any folder you like. The next lesson covers exactly how.

Picking an editor

Any editor with Go support works, but the common choice is VS Code with the official Go extension. Installing it also installs gopls, Go's language server, which gives you:

• autocomplete as you type
• jump-to-definition and find-references
• inline errors and warnings before you even compile
• automatic formatting on save

Other editors — Neovim, GoLand, Emacs, Sublime — all speak to gopls through the Language Server Protocol, so the experience is similar wherever you land. If you already have a favorite editor, look for its Go or LSP plugin rather than switching.

From browser to machine

On this site, you write Go in an in-browser editor and click Run, and a sandboxed environment compiles and executes it for you. That convenience is exactly what the rest of this chapter shows you how to reproduce locally: go run compiles and runs a file in one step, no separate build command needed. Once Go is installed and your editor is wired up, the workflow here and the workflow on your own machine are the same — you're just no longer limited to what fits in a browser tab.