Vendor Go dependencies and configure private module access (go mod vendor, GOPRIVATE)
domain: go.dev · 6 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Run `go mod vendor` to (re)create the vendor/ directory with every package needed to build and test the main module; it also writes vendor/modules.txt as the manifest. Flags: -e (tolerate errors), -v (verbose), -o <dir> (alternate output dir).
When a vendor/ directory exists and matches go.mod, builds automatically load packages from it instead of the module cache/network.
Commit vendor/ including vendor/modules.txt if you want hermetic, network-free builds.
For private repos, set `GOPRIVATE=*.corp.example.com,github.com/yourorg/*` (glob patterns) — matching modules skip both the public proxy and the checksum database and are fetched directly from VCS.
For finer control, GONOPROXY and GONOSUMDB take the same glob lists and override GOPRIVATE for the proxy and checksum decisions respectively (see `go help private`).
Docs: https://go.dev/ref/mod#go-mod-vendor and https://go.dev/ref/mod#private-modules
Known gotchas
go mod vendor RESETS vendor/ every run — local patches to vendored code are silently destroyed. Never edit files under vendor/.
Vendored packages exclude their test code (documented in `go help mod vendor`), so `go test all` behaves differently in vendor mode.
If go.mod changes without re-running go mod vendor, builds fail with an inconsistent-vendoring error listing the mismatches.
GOPRIVATE uses path.Match-style globs, not regex: 'github.com/org/*' matches one path element deep per pattern segment.
Private module fetches still need working VCS auth (e.g. git credentials for HTTPS or SSH) — GOPRIVATE only changes routing, not authentication.
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