godep

I have a single $GOPATH per project and always recommend doing so. If you vendor code with a tool like godep[0], having one shared $GOPATH is a nightmare. Other tools might work better, but this is basically the standard for the projects I work on. I basically just have a zsh alias[1] that combines z[2] and sets the $GOPATH to $PWD split on "src". I do share a single $GOBIN set to $HOME/bin, though. [0]: https://github.com/tools/godep [1]: https://github.com/jzelinskie/dotfiles/blob/04ad026f30782189... [2]: https://github.com/rupa/z

It does kick the can down the road, but it kicks it pretty far. I'm not the parent but your question is completely valid -- trying to get dependencies of dependencies sends us down a very deep rabbit hole. This is usually where dynamic linking and shrinkwrapping[1]/vendoring[2] start entering serious discussions. [1] http://blog.goguardian.com/nerds/shrinkwrap-not-just-for-mur... [2] https://github.com/tools/godep

https://github.com/tools/godep should solve all these issues. Yes, it vendors packages. But it happens completely automatically and you can switch to your own forks at will.