ReleaseRun Badges for Go

Why Use Go Health Badges?

Go releases new versions every six months, and only the latest two minor versions receive security patches. A health badge in your README gives instant visibility into whether a Go version is still patched and supported.

ReleaseRun badges go beyond Shields.io. Where Shields.io shows a static version number, our badges show security posture: CVE counts, EOL countdowns, and a composite health grade based on freshness (35%), security (35%), and support status (30%).

Go Release History & EOL Timeline

The Go team releases a new minor version roughly every six months (February and August). Each minor version is supported until two newer minor versions exist — meaning only the latest two releases receive patches at any time. This aggressive support window makes Go one of the fastest-moving runtimes to track.

• Go 1.26 — released February 2026. Current stable (latest: 1.26.1). Actively receiving patches.
• Go 1.25 — released August 2025. Still receiving security patches (second-latest, latest: 1.25.8). Will reach EOL when Go 1.27 ships (~August 2026).
• Go 1.24 — released February 2025. End-of-life since February 2026 (superseded by 1.25 and 1.26). No more security patches.
• Go 1.23 and earlier — end-of-life. Known CVEs remain unpatched. The ReleaseRun badge grade drops to F.

Go’s two-version support policy means the window between “current” and “unsupported” is only 12 months. Health badges make this visible — when your version drops out of the supported pair, the badge turns red immediately.

Badge Customization Examples

Four badge types are available for Go:

• Health badge — composite A–F grade. Embed: ![Go Health](https://img.releaserun.com/badge/health/go.svg)
• Freshness badge — how current your version is. Embed: ![Go 1.26](https://img.releaserun.com/badge/v/go/1.26.1.svg)
• EOL badge — end-of-life status. Embed: ![Go 1.24 EOL](https://img.releaserun.com/badge/eol/go/1.24.svg)
• CVE badge — vulnerability count. Embed: ![Go CVEs](https://img.releaserun.com/badge/cve/go/1.26.1.svg)

Customise with ?style=flat-square or ?style=for-the-badge. The embed builder above lets you preview all options before copying.

Common Use Cases

• Module maintainers: Show which Go versions your module CI matrix covers and whether those versions are still receiving security patches. When a version drops out of support, the badge flips automatically.
• Platform teams: Embed badges in internal dashboards to track which Go versions are deployed across microservices. One glance beats grepping Dockerfiles.
• Documentation sites: Add version health next to go install instructions so developers know they are targeting a supported toolchain.

Related ReleaseRun Tools

Go badges are part of a broader Go ecosystem toolkit:

• Go Module Health Check — scan your go.mod for outdated or EOL dependencies.
• Tech Stack Health Scorecard — get a holistic health grade across your entire Go-based stack.
• Dependency EOL Scanner — scan your dependency files and flag anything approaching end-of-life.
• EOL Timeline Visualizer — see Go EOL dates alongside your other dependencies on an interactive timeline.
• Upgrade Path Planner — plan your Go version upgrade with step-by-step guidance.
• CVE Dashboard — monitor known vulnerabilities across Go and all your other tracked products.
• Go Module Health Checker — check any Go module for latest version, known CVEs, and active maintenance.
• go.mod Batch Health Checker — paste your go.mod and get A–F grades for all modules at once.

What Makes These Different

Every badge pulls live data from the endoflife.date API and the NIST National Vulnerability Database. Data refreshes every 6 hours. Badges are edge-cached for 5 minutes — fast enough for CI pipelines, documentation sites, or release notes pages.

📚 Also see: 195+ Developer Reference Guides — quick-reference cheat sheets for every language and framework. 84+ free developer tools — security scanners, package health checkers, and more.