A fast cross-platform Go typechecker that performs typechecking for all Go build platforms without requiring a full cross-compilation.

Extracted from: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/tree/master/test/typecheck

Typecheck does cross-platform typechecking of source code for all Go build platforms. The primary benefit is speed: a full Kubernetes cross-build takes 20 minutes and >40GB of RAM, while this takes under 2 minutes and <8GB of RAM.

It uses Go's built-in parsing and typechecking libraries (go/parser and go/types), which unfortunately are not what the go compiler uses. Occasional mismatches will occur, but overall they correspond closely.

go install github.com/dims/typecheck@latest

Download pre-built binaries from the releases page.

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace ghcr.io/dims/typecheck:latest --platform linux/arm64 --verbose

# Check current directory
typecheck

# Check specific packages
typecheck ./pkg/...

# Check with verbose output
typecheck -verbose ./...

# Check for all platforms (default)
typecheck -cross

# Check specific platforms
typecheck -platform linux/amd64,windows/amd64

# Skip cross-platform checking (current platform only)
typecheck -cross=false

# Parallel execution (default: 2)
typecheck -parallel 4

# Serial execution
typecheck -serial

# Skip test files
typecheck -skip-test

# With build tags
typecheck -tags integration,e2e

# Ignore specific packages
typecheck -ignore k8s.io/kubernetes/vendor/...

# Show timing information
typecheck -time

# Show definitions and uses
typecheck -defuse

• linux/amd64
• linux/386
• linux/arm
• linux/arm64
• linux/ppc64le
• linux/s390x
• windows/386
• windows/amd64
• windows/arm64
• darwin/amd64
• darwin/arm64

True errors (according to the spec): These should be fixed whenever possible. Ignore if a fix isn't possible or is in progress (e.g., vendored code).

• Unused variables in closures

False errors: These should be ignored and reported upstream if applicable.

• Type checking mismatches between staging and generated types

• CGo errors, including syntax and linker errors

• Go 1.21 or later
• Make (optional, for convenience commands)

# Build binary
make build

# Build for all platforms
make build-all

# Run tests
make test

# Run tests with coverage
make test-coverage

# Run linter
make lint

# Format code
make fmt

# Run all checks
make check

# Run unit tests
go test ./...

# Run tests with race detection
go test -race ./...

# Run tests with coverage
go test -coverprofile=coverage.out ./...
go tool cover -html=coverage.out

# Build Docker image
docker build -t typecheck .

# Run with Docker
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace typecheck /workspace

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Make your changes
4. Run tests and linting (make check)
5. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
6. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
7. Open a Pull Request

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE for details.

This project was originally developed as part of the Kubernetes project for fast cross-platform type checking of the Kubernetes codebase.