Go

Options

Builds can be customized in multiple ways.

You can specify for which GOOS, GOARCH and GOARM binaries are built (GoReleaser will generate a matrix of all combinations), and you can change the name of the binary, flags, environment variables, hooks and more.

Here is a commented builds section with all fields specified:

.goreleaser.yaml

builds:
  # You can have multiple builds defined as a yaml list
  - #
    # ID of the build.
    #
    # Default: Project directory name.
    id: "my-build"

    # Path to main.go file or main package.
    # Notice: when used with `gomod.proxy`, this must be a package.
    # If you set it to a ellipsis path (e.g. './...'), GoReleaser will find all
    # 'main' functions and build them all on a single command. 
  Since v2.15 (unreleased)

    #
    # Default: `.`.
    main: ./cmd/my-app

    # Binary name.
    # Can be a path (e.g. `bin/app`) to wrap the binary in a directory.
    #
    # Default: Project directory name.
    binary: program

    # Custom flags.
    #
    # Templates: allowed.
    flags:
      - -tags=dev
      - -v

    # Custom asmflags.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Compile_packages_and_dependencies
    # and https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/asm
    #
    # Templates: allowed.
    asmflags:
      - -D mysymbol
      - all=-trimpath={{.Env.GOPATH}}

    # Custom gcflags.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Compile_packages_and_dependencies
    # and https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/compile
    #
    # Templates: allowed.
    gcflags:
      - all=-trimpath={{.Env.GOPATH}}
      - ./dontoptimizeme=-N

    # Custom ldflags.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Compile_packages_and_dependencies
    # and https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/link
    #
    # Default: '-s -w -X main.version={{.Version}} -X main.commit={{.Commit}} -X main.date={{.Date}} -X main.builtBy=goreleaser'.
    # Templates: allowed.
    ldflags:
      - -s -w -X main.build={{.Version}}
      - ./usemsan=-msan

    # Custom Go build mode.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Build_modes
    #
    # Valid options:
    # - `c-shared`
    # - `c-archive`
    # - `pie`
    buildmode: c-shared

    # Custom build tags templates.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Build_constraints
    tags:
      - osusergo
      - netgo
      - static_build
      - feature

    # Custom environment variables to be set during the builds.
    # Invalid environment variables will be ignored.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Environment_variables
    #
    # Default: os.Environ() ++ env config section.
    # Templates: allowed.
    env:
      - CGO_ENABLED=0
      # complex, templated envs:
      - >-
        {{- if eq .Os "darwin" }}
          {{- if eq .Arch "amd64"}}CC=o64-clang{{- end }}
          {{- if eq .Arch "arm64"}}CC=aarch64-apple-darwin20.2-clang{{- end }}
        {{- end }}
        {{- if eq .Os "windows" }}
          {{- if eq .Arch "amd64" }}CC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc{{- end }}
        {{- end }}

    # GOOS list to build for.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Environment_variables
    #
    # Default: [ 'darwin', 'linux', 'windows' ].
    goos:
      - freebsd
      - windows

    # GOARCH to build for.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Environment_variables
    #
    # Default: [ '386', 'amd64', 'arm64' ].
    goarch:
      - amd64
      - arm
      - arm64

    # GOARM to build for when GOARCH is arm.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Environment_variables
    # and https://go.dev/wiki/MinimumRequirements#microarchitecture-support
    #
    # Default: [ 6 ].
    goarm:
      - 6
      - 7

    # GOAMD64 to build when GOARCH is amd64.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Environment_variables
    # and https://go.dev/wiki/MinimumRequirements#microarchitecture-support
    #
    # Default: [ 'v1' ].
    goamd64:
      - v2
      - v3

    # GOARM64 to build when GOARCH is arm64.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Environment_variables
    # and https://go.dev/wiki/MinimumRequirements#microarchitecture-support
    #
    # Default: [ 'v8.0' ].
    # 
  Since v2.4

    goarm64:
      - v9.0

    # GOMIPS and GOMIPS64 to build when GOARCH is mips, mips64, mipsle or mips64le.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Environment_variables
    # and https://go.dev/wiki/MinimumRequirements#microarchitecture-support
    #
    # Default: [ 'hardfloat' ].
    # 
  Since v2.4

    gomips:
      - hardfloat
      - softfloat

    # GO386 to build when GOARCH is 386.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Environment_variables
    # and https://go.dev/wiki/MinimumRequirements#microarchitecture-support
    #
    # Default: [ 'sse2' ].
    # 
  Since v2.4

    go386:
      - sse2
      - softfloat

    # GOPPC64 to build when GOARCH is PPC64.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Environment_variables
    # and https://go.dev/wiki/MinimumRequirements#microarchitecture-support
    #
    # Default: [ 'power8' ].
    # 
  Since v2.4

    goppc64:
      - power8
      - power9

    # GORISCV64 to build when GOARCH is RISCV64.
    # For more info refer to: https://pkg.go.dev/cmd/go#hdr-Environment_variables
    # and https://go.dev/wiki/MinimumRequirements#microarchitecture-support
    #
    # Default: [ 'rva20u64' ].
    # 
  Since v2.4

    goriscv64:
      - rva22u64

    # List of combinations of GOOS + GOARCH + GOARM to ignore.
    ignore:
      - goos: darwin
        goarch: 386
      - goos: linux
        goarch: arm
        goarm: 7
      - goarm: mips64
      - gomips: hardfloat
      - goamd64: v4

    # Optionally override the matrix generation and specify only the final list
    # of targets.
    #
    # Format is `{goos}_{goarch}` with their respective suffixes when
    # applicable: `_{goarm}`, `_{goamd64}`, `_{gomips}`, `_{go386}`,
    #             `_{goriscv64}`, `_{goarm64}`, `_{goppc64}`.
    #
    # Special values:
    # - go_118_first_class: evaluates to the first-class ports of go1.18.
    # - go_first_class: evaluates to latest stable go first-class ports,
    #   currently same as 1.18.
    #
    # This overrides `goos`, `goarch`, `goarm`, `gomips`, `goamd64`, `go386`,
    #                `goriscv64`, `goarm64`, `goppc64`, and `ignores`.
    targets:
      - go_first_class
      - go_118_first_class
      - linux_amd64_v1
      - darwin_arm64
      - linux_arm_6

    # Set a specific go binary to use when building.
    # It is safe to ignore this option in most cases.
    #
    # Default: "go".
    # Templates: allowed.
    # 
  Since v2.5

    tool: "go1.13.4"

    # Sets the command to run to build.
    # Can be useful if you want to build tests, for example,
    # in which case you can set this to "test".
    # It is safe to ignore this option in most cases.
    #
    # Default: build.
    command: test

    # Set the modified timestamp on the output binary, typically
    # you would do this to ensure a build was reproducible.
    # Pass an empty string to skip modifying the output.
    #
    # Templates: allowed.
    mod_timestamp: "{{ .CommitTimestamp }}"

    # Hooks can be used to customize the final binary,
    # for example, to run generators.
    #
    # Templates: allowed.
    hooks:
      pre: rice embed-go
      post: ./script.sh {{ .Path }}

    # If true, skip the build.
    # Useful for library projects.
    #
    # Templates: allowed (
  Since v2.3
)
    skip: false

    # By default, GoReleaser will create your binaries inside
    # `dist/${BuildID}_${BuildTarget}`, which is a unique directory per build
    # target in the matrix.
    # You can set subdirs within that directory using the `binary` property.
    #
    # However, if for some reason you don't want that unique directory to be
    # created, you can set this property.
    # If you do, you are responsible for keeping different builds from
    # overriding each other.
    #
    # Templates: allowed (
  Since v2.3
)
    no_unique_dist_dir: true

    # By default, GoReleaser will check if the main filepath has a main
    # function.
    # This can be used to skip that check, in case you're building tests, for
    # example.
    no_main_check: true

    # Path to project's (sub)directory containing Go code.
    # This is the working directory for the Go build command(s).
    # If dir does not contain a `go.mod` file, and you are using `gomod.proxy`,
    # produced binaries will be invalid.
    # You would likely want to use `main` instead of this.
    #
    # Default: '.'.
    dir: go

    # Builder allows you to use a different build implementation.
    # Valid options are: `go`, `rust`, `zig`, and `prebuilt` (pro-only).
    #
    # Default: 'go'.
    builder: prebuilt

    # Overrides allows to override some fields for specific targets.
    # This can be specially useful when using CGO.
    #
    # Attention: you need to set at least goos and goarch, otherwise it won't
    # match anything.
    overrides:
      - goos: darwin
        goarch: amd64
        goamd64: v1
        goarm: ""
        goarm64: ""
        gomips: ""
        go386: ""
        goriscv64: ""
        goppc64: ""
        ldflags:
          - foo
        tags:
          - bar
        asmflags:
          - foobar
        gcflags:
          - foobaz
        env:
          - CGO_ENABLED=1

    # Set a specific go binary to use when building.
    # It is safe to ignore this option in most cases.
    #
    # Default: "go".
    # Templates: allowed.
    # Deprecated: use `tool` instead.
    gobinary: "go1.13.4"

Note

Learn more about build hooks.

Warning

GOAMD64, GORISCV64, GOPPC64, GO386, GOARM, GOARM64

You usually will need to specify the complete target in places like targets and overrides. This includes the _{goamd64} suffix, as well as the other GOARCH-specific values.

Learn more about the template language.

Note

First-class build targets are gathered by running:

go tool dist list -json | jq -r '.[] | select(.FirstClass) | [.GOOS, .GOARCH] | @tsv'

We also recommend reading the official wiki about Go ports.

Here is an example with multiple binaries:

.goreleaser.yaml

builds:
  - main: ./cmd/cli
    id: "cli"
    binary: cli
    goos:
      - linux
      - darwin
      - windows

  - main: ./cmd/worker
    id: "worker"
    binary: worker
    goos:
      - linux
      - darwin
      - windows

  - main: ./cmd/tracker
    id: "tracker"
    binary: tracker
    goos:
      - linux
      - darwin
      - windows

The binary name field supports templating. The following build details are exposed:

Key	Description
.Os	`GOOS`
.Arch	`GOARCH`
.Arm	`GOARM`
.Ext	Extension, e.g. `.exe`
.Target	Build target, e.g. `darwin_amd64`

Understanding `GOMAXPROCS` in GoReleaser

`GOMAXPROCS` for GoReleaser

GoReleaser uses automaxprocs to automatically set GOMAXPROCS based on available CPUs, including honoring container CPU limits. This determines the number of threads GoReleaser itself uses internally.

GoReleaser also provides a --parallelism flag to control how many internal tasks (e.g., builds, archives, uploads) run concurrently. If --parallelism is not set, GoReleaser defaults to the current value of GOMAXPROCS.

`GOMAXPROCS` for `go build` commands

Each go build command launched by GoReleaser inherits the environment, including GOMAXPROCS. If GOMAXPROCS is not explicitly set, Go will default to the number of host CPUs.

If you’re running inside a container and want to respect CPU limits during builds, you must set GOMAXPROCS manually.

Example

If you want GoReleaser to run up to 10 tasks in parallel, but restrict go build to use only 2 threads:

GOMAXPROCS=2 goreleaser release --parallelism=10

This configures:

GoReleaser to run up to 10 internal tasks concurrently
go build subprocesses to use only 2 OS threads

Passing environment variables to ldflags

You can do that by using {{ .Env.VARIABLE_NAME }} in the template, for example:

.goreleaser.yaml

builds:
  - ldflags:
   - -s -w -X "main.goversion={{.Env.GOVERSION}}"

Then you can run:

GOVERSION=$(go version) goreleaser

Go Modules

If you use Go 1.11+ with go modules or vgo, when GoReleaser runs it may try to download the dependencies. Since several builds run in parallel, it is very likely to fail.

You can solve this by running go mod tidy before calling goreleaser or by adding a hook doing that on your .goreleaser.yaml file:

.goreleaser.yaml

before:
  hooks:
    - go mod tidy
# rest of the file...

Reproducible Builds

To make your releases, checksums and signatures reproducible, you will need to make some (if not all) of the following modifications to the build defaults in GoReleaser:

Modify ldflags: by default main.Date is set to the time GoReleaser is run ({{.Date}}), you can set this to {{.CommitDate}} or just not pass the variable.
Modify mod_timestamp: by default this is empty string — which means it’ll be the compilation time, set to {{.CommitTimestamp}} or a constant value instead.
If you do not run your builds from a consistent directory structure, pass -trimpath to flags.
Remove uses of the time template function. This function returns a new value on every call and is not deterministic.

A note about directory names inside `dist`

By default, GoReleaser will create your binaries inside dist/${BuildID}_${BuildTarget}, which is a unique directory per build target in the matrix.

Those names have no guarantees of remaining the same from one version to another. If you really need to access them from outside GoReleaser, you should be able to consistently get the path of a binary by parsing dist/artifacts.json.

You can also set builds.no_unique_dist_dir (as documented earlier in this page), but in that case you are responsible for preventing name conflicts.

Why is there a `_v1` suffix on `amd64` builds?

Go 1.18 introduced the GOAMD64 option, and v1 is the default value for that option.

Since you can have GoReleaser build for multiple different GOAMD64 targets, it adds that suffix to prevent name conflicts. The same thing happens for arm and GOARM, mips and GOMIPS and others.

Go’s first class ports

The targets option can take a go_first_class special value as target, which will evaluate to the list of first class ports as defined in the Go wiki.

You can read more about it here.

Building shared or static libraries

GoReleaser supports compiling and releasing C shared or static libraries, by configuring the Go build mode.

This can be set with buildmode in your build. It now supports c-shared and c-archive. Other values will transparently be applied to the build line (via the -buildmode flag), but GoReleaser will not attempt to configure any additional logic.

GoReleaser will:

set the correct file extension for the target OS.
package the generated header file (.h) in the release bundle.

Example usage:

.goreleaser.yaml

builds:
  - id: "my-library"

    # Configure the buildmode flag to output a shared library
    buildmode: "c-shared" # or "c-archive" for a static library

Building ellipsis paths

This will be available in the next release (v2.15). Stay tuned!

You can also set the main to an ellipsis import path, e.g. ./....

GoReleaser will then look for all main packages with a func main(){}, and build all of them on a single pass, akin to something like go build -o ./somedir . ./cmd/foo/ ./cmd/bar/. Binary names will be inferred just like go build does.

If you have multiple build configurations that change only the main and binary portions, this might be your friend.

Learn more about the template language.

Last updated on March 22, 2026

Bun

Go

Options

Understanding GOMAXPROCS in GoReleaser

GOMAXPROCS for GoReleaser

GOMAXPROCS for go build commands

Example

Passing environment variables to ldflags

Go Modules

Reproducible Builds

A note about directory names inside dist

Why is there a _v1 suffix on amd64 builds?

Go’s first class ports

Building shared or static libraries

Building ellipsis paths

Understanding `GOMAXPROCS` in GoReleaser

`GOMAXPROCS` for GoReleaser

`GOMAXPROCS` for `go build` commands

A note about directory names inside `dist`

Why is there a `_v1` suffix on `amd64` builds?