Annotations fail for mono-repo if not using 'args: --path-prefix=' (but this makes CI very slow)

[HaraldNordgren]

Welcome

• Yes, I understand that the GitHub action repository is not the repository of golangci-lint itself.
• Yes, I've searched similar issues on GitHub and didn't find any.
• Yes, I've included all information below (version, config, etc).

Description of the problem

I'm setting up golangci-lint GH action and it works almost. I follow the "Go Workspace Example" from https://github.com/golangci/golangci-lint-action?tab=readme-ov-file#how-to-use (but for me each lint job runs as as step in my regular build job, I have 50+ services/jobs already, so it seemed easiest to do it that way.)

By running my job with debug logging turned on I see that file is dropped:

2025-05-04T13:19:13.0562816Z ::group::run golangci-lint
2025-05-04T13:19:13.0562996Z ##[group]run golangci-lint
2025-05-04T13:19:13.0569558Z Running [/home/runner/golangci-lint-2.0.2-linux-amd64/golangci-lint config path] in [/home/runner/work/hive/hive/hava-pkg] ...
2025-05-04T13:19:13.1467153Z Running [/home/runner/golangci-lint-2.0.2-linux-amd64/golangci-lint config verify] in [/home/runner/work/hive/hive/hava-pkg] ...
2025-05-04T13:19:13.4391753Z Running [/home/runner/golangci-lint-2.0.2-linux-amd64/golangci-lint run --path-prefix=hava-pkg] in [/home/runner/work/hive/hive/hava-pkg] ...
2025-05-04T13:20:44.2554131Z ##[debug]Dropping file value '/home/runner/work/hive/hive/hava-pkg/hava-pkg/docker_helpers/directus.go'. Path does not exist
2025-05-04T13:20:44.2563028Z ##[error]hava-pkg/hava-pkg/docker_helpers/directus.go:86:21: response body must be closed (bodyclose)
2025-05-04T13:20:44.2572240Z 		_, err := http.Get(directusUrl + "/server/health")
2025-05-04T13:20:44.2572883Z 		                  ^
2025-05-04T13:20:44.2573228Z 1 issues:
2025-05-04T13:20:44.2573536Z * bodyclose: 1
2025-05-04T13:20:44.2573758Z 
2025-05-04T13:20:44.2586460Z ##[error]issues found

Notice that the path has a weird structure, it contains the working directory twice: /home/runner/work/hive/hive/hava-pkg/hava-pkg/docker_helpers/directus.go. Here 'hive' is my repo and 'hava-pkg' my working directory.

Issues are successfully reported as issues on the jobs themselves itself, see image below:

But annotations fail to be shown in the "Files changed" tab on the pull request, see image below, where no annotation shows up:

Root cause could be that the working-directory though path-prefix (https://github.com/golangci/golangci-lint-action/blob/main/src/run.ts#L127) gets added twice to the path that attempts to be sent to GitHub annotations and it rejects it.

One (bad) workaround is to run my job step like this:

      - name: Run golangci-lint
        if: always()
        uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v7
        with:
          working-directory: ${{ matrix.service }}
          args: --path-prefix= #Adding this to make the annotations work
          version: v2.0

However, this has balloons the time by 10x, presumably each CI job runs the linting for all the other services as well?

Version of golangci-lint

v2.0.2

Version of the GitHub Action

v7

Workflow file

---
name: build-go

on:
  push:
    paths:
      - 'go.mod'
      - 'cmd/**'
      - 'pkg/**'
      - 'hava-pkg/**'
      - 'services/**'
      - '.github/workflows/go.yaml'

jobs:
  gen_build_list:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      services: ${{ steps.gen_list.outputs.services }}
    steps:
      - name: Check out source code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 100

      - name: Set up Go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version-file: 'go.mod'
          check-latest: true

      - run: git fetch origin master

      - id: gen_list
        run: echo "${SERVICES}" # Redacted

  build:
    permissions:
      contents: 'write'
      pull-requests: 'write'
      id-token: 'write'
      checks: 'write'

    needs: gen_build_list
    if: needs.gen_build_list.outputs.services != '[]'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        service: ${{ fromJSON(needs.gen_build_list.outputs.services) }}
    steps:
      - name: Check out source code
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Set up Go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v5
        with:
          go-version-file: 'go.mod'
          check-latest: true

      - name: build ${{ matrix.service }}
        env:
          GOPRIVATE: "github.com/dietdoctor/*"
        run: go run ./cmd/hive build ${{ matrix.service }}

      - name: Run golangci-lint
        if: always()
        uses: golangci/golangci-lint-action@v7
        with:
          working-directory: ${{ matrix.service }}
          version: v2.0

Golangci-lint configuration

version: "2"

run:
  timeout: 5m

linters:
  enable:
    - bodyclose
    - goconst
    - makezero
    - rowserrcheck
    - sqlclosecheck
    - testifylint
    - unparam
    - whitespace
  exclusions:
    paths:
      - services/ddapi/pkg/schema
      - services/subscriptions
    rules:
      - path: '(^pkg/|^services/users/)'
        linters:
          - bodyclose
          - goconst
          - makezero
          - rowserrcheck
          - sqlclosecheck
          - testifylint
          - unparam
          - whitespace

Go version

go1.24.2

Code example or link to a public repository

// add your code here

[ldez]

hello,

I recommend using golangci-lint v2.1 and the cli flag --path-mode=abs.

[HaraldNordgren]

@ldez Thanks a lot! 🙌

Should this be the default behavior when running with 'working-directory'?

Or should we add it to the example code for workspaces? Seems like other people would have the same issue.

Either way I can take a stab at it if you agree.

[HaraldNordgren]

@ldez I created a PR here if you want to take a look: #1229

[ldez]

As a first non-breaking step, I would prefer an update of the documentation.

The update of the action requires more changes than just adding the arg, I would like to handle this part by myself if possible for you. (FYI, I'm already working on that, but you opened a PR before I finished my work)

[HaraldNordgren]

Sounds good! Thanks for a great GitHub action by the way! ❤️