golangci/golangci-lint · error

disabled tag %q doesn't exist, see %s's documentation

Error message

disabled tag %q doesn't exist, see %s's documentation

What it means

golangci-lint's gocritic wrapper validates that every tag listed under gocritic.settings.disabled-tags actually exists among gocritic's known check tags. If a tag name doesn't match any known tag, configuration parsing fails with this error before any code is linted.

Source

Thrown at pkg/golinters/gocritic/gocritic_settings.go:339

		if len(s.EnabledTags) == 0 && len(s.EnabledChecks) == 0 {
			return errors.New("all checks were disabled, but no one check was enabled: at least one must be enabled")
		}
	}

	return nil
}

func (s *settingsWrapper) validateCheckerTags() error {
	for _, tag := range s.EnabledTags {
		if !s.allChecksByTag.has(tag) {
			return fmt.Errorf("enabled tag %q doesn't exist, see %s's documentation", tag, linterName)
		}
	}

	for _, tag := range s.DisabledTags {
		if !s.allChecksByTag.has(tag) {
			return fmt.Errorf("disabled tag %q doesn't exist, see %s's documentation", tag, linterName)
		}
	}

	return nil
}

func (s *settingsWrapper) validateCheckerNames() error {
	for _, check := range s.EnabledChecks {
		if !s.allChecks.has(check) {
			return fmt.Errorf("enabled check %q doesn't exist, see %s's documentation", check, linterName)
		}
	}

	for _, check := range s.DisabledChecks {
		if !s.allChecks.has(check) {
			return fmt.Errorf("disabled check %q doesn't exist, see %s documentation", check, linterName)
		}
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to ed7a235d2d)

Solutions

  1. Fix the tag spelling in .golangci.yml under settings.gocritic.disabled-tags
  2. Run 'golangci-lint cache clean' is irrelevant; instead check valid tags via 'go vet' tooling or gocritic docs / 'golangci-lint help gocritic' style listing
  3. Remove the unknown tag from disabled-tags if disabling it is not needed
  4. Pin golangci-lint/gocritic version and confirm the tag exists in that version

Example fix

// before (.golangci.yml)
settings:
  gocritic:
    disabled-tags:
      - stylig
// after
settings:
  gocritic:
    disabled-tags:
      - style
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const validGocriticTags = new Set(['diagnostic','style','performance','experimental','opinionated','security'])
function assertTagsValid(tags) {
  const bad = tags.filter(t => !validGocriticTags.has(t))
  if (bad.length) throw new Error(`unknown gocritic tags: ${bad.join(', ')}`)
}
assertTagsValid(cfg.settings.gocritic['disabled-tags'] ?? [])

Type guard

const isKnownGocriticTag = (t) => ['diagnostic','style','performance','experimental','opinionated','security'].includes(t)

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Running golangci-lint with config settings.gocritic.disabled-tags containing a tag that gocritic does not define (typo, renamed tag, or tag from a different linter). validateCheckerTags checks each tag against allChecksByTag.

Common situations: Typos like 'style' vs 'styling', copying tags from golangci-lint's other linters, gocritic adding/renaming tags in a version upgrade so a previously valid tag disappears.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of golangci/golangci-lint@ed7a235d2d (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/00ff514b44b31c1a. Report an issue: GitHub.