No Zerolog .Msgf Usage After .Error

A custom linter that checks for incorrect usage of .Msgf(...) after chaining .Error() on a zerolog Event.

Purpose

This linter helps maintain consistent logging practices by detecting cases where .Msgf(...) is used after .Error() on a zerolog Event. Instead, it suggests including additional log information as Event fields (e.g. .Str("key", "value")).

Building the Linter

Prerequisites

• Go (version 1.24.3)
• golangci-lint (version 2.1.6)

Installing Go

There were some issues when installing and using Go via brew. I recommend using gvm:

gvm install go1.24.3
gvm use go1.24.3 --default

You may have to add [[ -s "$HOME/.gvm/scripts/gvm" ]] && source "$HOME/.gvm/scripts/gvm" to the top of your .zshrc. A known problem is the IDE not using go tools (gopls, dlv) built with the new go version. Try running:

gvm pkgset create go1.24.3-global
gvm pkgset use go1.24.3-global --default

Installing golangci-lint

go install github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/cmd/[email protected]

If you previously had golangci-lint installed, make sure that your path is pointing to the correct one.

Building

Once it is confirmed that golangci-lint was build with the same version of go you are running, build the plugin by running:

golangci-lint custom -v

This needs to be run from the directory with .custom-gcl.yml, which is currently in /stork-aggregator. This command will create a custom executable version of golangci-lint, called custom-gcl, that can be run by the IDE.

Settings

{
   ...
   "go.lintTool": "golangci-lint",
    "go.lintFlags": [
        "--config=${workspaceFolder}/.golangci.yaml"
    ],
    "go.alternateTools": {
        "golangci-lint": "${workspaceFolder}/custom-gcl",
        "customFormatter": "${workspaceFolder}/custom-gcl",
    },
    "go.lintOnSave": "package",
   ... 
}

Make sure your settings.json uses the new custom-gcl. You must also set the Go extension to use the pre-release version. Once this is done, make sure you set your IDE's linter to golangci-lint-v2.

Also, make sure that your IDE is running the correct version of the go language server, gopls (version 0.18.1)

Usage

With the settings.json configured as above, the IDE should automatically lint and highlight on save. To run from the command line, look at the make lint command.