Revive — Fast and Extensible Go Linter

Introduction

Revive is a Go linter built as a faster, more configurable successor to the now-archived golint. It checks Go source code for style violations, naming conventions, and common mistakes, and lets teams define custom rules to enforce project-specific standards.

What Revive Does

• Enforces Go naming conventions (exported names, package comments, error types)
• Detects unreachable code, unused parameters, and unnecessary blank identifiers
• Validates function complexity, argument counts, and return value patterns
• Supports custom rules written as Go functions loaded at runtime
• Outputs diagnostics in text, JSON, or friendly formatted styles

Architecture Overview

Revive parses Go source files using the standard go/ast and go/token packages, then runs each file through a pipeline of rule checkers. Rules implement a simple interface receiving an AST file and returning failures. Configuration is loaded from a TOML file that enables, disables, or sets severity and arguments per rule. The runner parallelizes across packages for speed.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Install with go install github.com/mgechev/revive@latest
• Create a revive.toml to enable or disable specific rules
• Set rule severity to warning or error to control exit codes
• Exclude generated files or test files with exclude patterns in config
• Integrates with golangci-lint as a bundled linter

Key Features

• Drop-in golint replacement with backward-compatible rule set
• TOML-based config for per-rule severity, arguments, and exclusions
• Custom rule API lets teams add project-specific checks
• Parallel execution across packages for fast analysis of large codebases
• Multiple output formatters including JSON for CI integration

Comparison with Similar Tools

• golint — archived and unmaintained; Revive is its actively developed successor
• Staticcheck — focuses on correctness and bug detection; Revive focuses on style and conventions
• golangci-lint — meta-linter that can run Revive alongside other tools
• go vet — catches low-level issues; Revive targets higher-level style and readability
• gofmt/gofumpt — handle formatting only; Revive addresses semantic style rules

FAQ

Q: Is Revive a drop-in replacement for golint? A: Yes, Revive includes all of golint's rules and adds many more while maintaining backward compatibility.

Q: How do I write a custom rule? A: Implement the revive.Rule interface with a Name() and Apply(*File, Arguments) method, then reference it in your config.

Q: Can I use Revive with golangci-lint? A: Yes, golangci-lint includes Revive as one of its bundled linters with pass-through config support.

Q: How fast is Revive compared to golint? A: Revive runs rules in parallel and is typically several times faster than golint on multi-package projects.

Sources

• https://github.com/mgechev/revive
• https://revive.run/