Skip to main content
1

Install the igo binary

Follow the installation guide to download the igo binary, set permissions, and add it to your PATH.
2

Install a Go version

Install Go 1.23.4:
igo -i 1.23.4
igo downloads the official tarball from go.dev/dl, extracts it under ~/go/versions/1.23.4/, sets it as the active version, and writes the shell activator script to ~/.igo.
3

Source the shell activator

igo writes ~/.igo during the first install. Source it to set up your environment:
source ~/.igo
To load it automatically in every new terminal session, add the source line to your shell config:
echo 'source ~/.igo' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc
The activator sets the following variables:
VariableValue
IGO_ROOT~/go — the igo workspace root
IGO_SHIMS~/go/shims — shim scripts, prepended to PATH
IGO_BIN~/go/bin — active Go bin, prepended to PATH
GOROOTPath to the active Go toolchain
GOBINBin directory of the active Go toolchain
GOPATHVersioned Go path for the active version
GOMODCACHEModule cache for the active version
4

Verify the installation

List installed versions:
igo -l
Example output:
igo [open source at github.com/ProjectApario/igo]
┌──────────┬──────────────────┬─────────────┐
│ VERSION  │     CREATION     │   STATUS    │
├──────────┼──────────────────┼─────────────┤
│ 1.23.4   │ 2025-05-22 11:30 │  * ACTIVE   │
├──────────┼──────────────────┼─────────────┤
│ I ❤ YOU! │ Made In America  │ Be Inspired │
└──────────┴──────────────────┴─────────────┘
5

Run Go

With the activator sourced and a version installed, go resolves through the igo shim at ~/go/shims/go:
go version
# go version go1.23.4 linux/amd64
The shim automatically selects the correct version by checking for a go.mod or .go_version file in the current directory tree, falling back to the globally active version.

​
Next steps

Install command

Full reference for igo -i, including custom install directories and debug options

Switch versions

Switch between installed Go versions with igo -s

Configuration flags

Customize the workspace directory, target OS, architecture, and more

Shell setup

Details on the ~/.igo activator and environment variables

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us