What causes "failed to get enabled linters: %w" in golangci/golangci-lint?

Read the wrapped cause — it names the conflicting linters or invalid combination

failed to get enabled linters: %w

Error message

failed to get enabled linters: %w

What it means

NewRunner asks the lintersdb Manager for the map of enabled linters (GetEnabledLintersMap). If that validation fails — most commonly mutually exclusive linters or invalid preset/enable combinations — the runner cannot be built and the error is wrapped as "failed to get enabled linters".

Source

Thrown at pkg/lint/runner.go:52

}

func NewRunner(log logutils.Log, cfg *config.Config, goenv *goutil.Env,
	lineCache *fsutils.LineCache, fileCache *fsutils.FileCache,
	dbManager *lintersdb.Manager, lintCtx *linter.Context,
) (*Runner, error) {
	pathRelativity, err := processors.NewPathRelativity(log, cfg.GetBasePath())
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error creating path relativity processor: %w", err)
	}

	exclusionPaths, err := processors.NewExclusionPaths(log, &cfg.Linters.Exclusions)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	enabledLinters, err := dbManager.GetEnabledLintersMap()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get enabled linters: %w", err)
	}

	var enabledFormatters []string
	for name := range maps.Keys(enabledLinters) {
		if goformatters.IsFormatter(name) {
			enabledFormatters = append(enabledFormatters, name)
		}
	}

	switch len(enabledLinters) {
	case 0:
		return nil, errors.New("no linters enabled")
	case 1:
		if _, ok := enabledLinters["typecheck"]; ok {
			return nil, errors.New("no linters enabled")
		}
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to ed7a235d2d)

Solutions

Read the wrapped cause — it names the conflicting linters or invalid combination
Remove one of the mutually exclusive linters from `linters.enable` in .golangci.yml
If presets conflict with explicit enables, drop the preset or the overlapping names
Run `golangci-lint config verify` (or `linters` command) to validate the config before running

Example fix

// before (.golangci.yml)
linters:
  enable:
    - gofmt
    - gofumpt   # conflicting formatters
// after
linters:
  enable:
    - gofumpt

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Validate the enabled-linter set before running:
// golangci-lint cache status
// golangci-lint config verify
// golangci-lint linters | grep -E '<enabled names>'  # confirm each resolves and isn't exclusive

Try / catch

enabled, err := dbManager.GetEnabledLintersMap()
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("failed to get enabled linters: %w", err)
}

Prevention

Never combine mutually exclusive linters (e.g. multiple gofmt-family formatters) in `linters.enable`
Validate config in CI with `golangci-lint config verify` on every change
Avoid mixing presets with hand-picked enables without checking overlaps
Read the wrapped error's cause; it explicitly names the conflict

When it happens

Trigger: Configuration that GetEnabledLintersMap rejects: enabling linters that cannot run together (e.g. enabling both exclusive linters like gofmt/goimports conflicts in formatter mode), enabling a disabled-by-default preset combination, or enabling unknown linters that passed earlier validation but conflict here.

Common situations: Copy-pasted .golangci.yml enabling two incompatible linters; combining `--fast` with linters that have no fast variant; presets mixed with explicit enable lists that overlap conflicts.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of golangci/golangci-lint@ed7a235d2d (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9070ec4b19fd104a. Report an issue: GitHub.