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When you run igo -i for the first time, igo writes a shell activator script to ~/.igo. This script sets the environment variables your shell needs to find the correct Go binaries and adjusts your PATH so the igo shims take precedence.
igo detects your shell automatically using the $SHELL environment variable, falling back to /etc/passwd if $SHELL is not set. It recognizes bash, zsh, fish, ksh, csh, tcsh, and sh.

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Add the activator to your shell config

After igo creates ~/.igo, source it from your shell configuration file so it runs in every new terminal session.
Add the following line to your ~/.zshrc:
source ~/.igo
Then apply the change without restarting your terminal:
source ~/.zshrc

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What the activator does

The ~/.igo script performs the following steps every time your shell starts:
  1. Guards against double-sourcing. If IGO_SOURCED is already set in the environment, the script returns immediately. This prevents PATH from being prepended multiple times in nested shell sessions.
  2. Sets core igo variables. Three variables are exported to establish the workspace layout:
    • IGO_ROOT — the workspace root (~/go)
    • IGO_SHIMS — the shims directory (~/go/shims)
    • IGO_BIN — the active binary directory (~/go/bin)
  3. Prepends shims and bin to PATH. The script checks whether IGO_SHIMS is already in PATH. If not, it prepends both IGO_SHIMS and IGO_BIN so igo’s shims resolve first.
  4. Reads the active version and sets Go environment variables. If ~/go/version exists, its contents are read to determine the active version string. Four Go environment variables are then exported pointing at that version’s directories.
  5. Defines igo-rehash. A no-op shell function named igo-rehash is defined as a placeholder for future shim regeneration logic.

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Environment variables

After sourcing ~/.igo, the following environment variables are available in your shell:
VariableValueDescription
IGO_ROOT~/goigo workspace root
IGO_SHIMS~/go/shimsShim scripts directory, prepended to PATH
IGO_BIN~/go/binActive Go binaries, prepended to PATH
GOROOT~/go/versions/<ver>/goGo standard library root
GOBIN~/go/versions/<ver>/go/binDirectory where go install places binaries
GOPATH~/go/versions/<ver>Go workspace path
GOMODCACHE~/go/versions/<ver>/go/pkg/modModule download cache
<ver> is the version string read from ~/go/version (e.g. 1.23.4).
If ~/go/version does not exist (no version has been activated yet), the GOROOT, GOBIN, GOPATH, and GOMODCACHE variables are not exported. Run igo -i <version> to install and activate your first Go version.

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Activator script template

The following is the full content of the activator script that igo writes to ~/.igo: 
# ~/.igosh  (or ~/go/.igosh)

if [[ -n "${IGO_SOURCED:-}" ]]; then
    return 0
fi
IGO_SOURCED=1

export IGO_ROOT="${HOME}/go"
export IGO_SHIMS="${IGO_ROOT}/shims"
export IGO_BIN="${IGO_ROOT}/bin"

case ":${PATH}:" in
  *":${IGO_SHIMS}:"*)  ;;    # already there
  *) export PATH="${IGO_SHIMS}:${IGO_BIN}:${PATH}" ;;
esac

if [[ -f "${IGO_ROOT}/version" ]]; then
    ver=$(<"${IGO_ROOT}/version")
    export GOROOT="${IGO_ROOT}/versions/${ver}/go"
    export GOBIN="${GOROOT}/bin"
    export GOPATH="${IGO_ROOT}/versions/${ver}"
    export GOMODCACHE="${GOROOT}/pkg/mod"
fi

igo-rehash() {
    # can regenerate shims if needed in the future
    :
}

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