No .air folder after installing with go install with Go 1.24.3

[pommepommee]

Following the README, it's impossible to launch air in a terminal. The readme refers to a ~/.air/ folder, whereas the command go install github.com/air-verse/air@latest creates a ~/go/ folder.

[alexjoseps]

Same here, using Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS with WSL.

Installed golang using .tar from go.dev rm -rf /usr/local/go && tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.24.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz

[vihutr]

Have this issue as well in linux 6.12.33-1-lts, but on Go version 1.24.4.

[illank86]

same here in macOS 15.5 go 1.24.4

[MotiurRahmanSany]

✅ Fix: air command not found after go install or if air init is not working

If you're seeing this error when trying to use air:

air: command not found

even after installing it with:

go install github.com/cosmtrek/air@latest

👉 The problem is that Go installs binaries to your local $HOME/go/bin directory, but this path is not included in your system's PATH environment variable by default — especially on Linux systems like Ubuntu or Pop!_OS.

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🛠️ Solution: Add $HOME/go/bin to your PATH

Update your shell config file to include the Go binaries directory.

For Bash (~/.bashrc)

export PATH="$HOME/go/bin:$PATH"
source ~/.bashrc

For Zsh (~/.zshrc)

export PATH="$HOME/go/bin:$PATH"
source ~/.zshrc

This tells your terminal where to find tools installed via go install.

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After adding this above export path, my bash config e.g. .bashrc now has two export path, like this :

✅ Test it

Now open a new terminal or run:

source ~/.bashrc   # or ~/.zshrc

Then check:

which air

Expected output:

/home/your-username/go/bin/air

Now you can successfully run these command in your project root to enjoy hot reload 💯

air init
air

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📌 Notes

• This solution worked for me on Pop!_OS (Ubuntu-based), but applies to any Linux where $HOME/go/bin isn't in PATH.
• This issue affects all Go tools installed via go install, not just air.

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Alhamdulillah, this fixed it for me. Posting here in case it helps someone else struggling with the same thing. 🙌