# Compiling go for Apple Silicon

Compiling go for Apple Silicon devices is fairly straight forward. To get a working binary we'll need an x86 device to use for cross-compilation. In this case we're going to use a DigitalOcean droplet.

> **Note!** Currently only the unreleased go 1.16 supports Apple Silicon, so we're going to be compiling from the master branch

We're going to start by creating a new DigitalOcean droplet with Ubuntu 20.04. It's only going to be running for 10 - 15 minutes, so we'll give it a fair bit of processing power to compile go more quickly.

![image.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1607276611851/ngvQk_8z8.png)

Once your droplet has finished creating, grab the public IP address and SSH into it as the root user.

```bash
ssh root@IP_ADDRESS
```

To build go from source we need a bootstrap version of go. We can install a copy from Ubuntu's apt repository using the following command.

```bash
apt-get install golang -yy
```

Now that you've got a bootstrap compiler we're going to clone down go's GitHub repository and cross-compile it.

```bash
git clone https://github.com/golang/go.git
cd go/src
GOARCH=arm64 GOOS=darwin ./bootstrap.bash
```

Now that we've built our binary we're going to return to our Apple Silicon Mac and copy down the built archive.

```bash
scp root@IP_ADDRESS:~/go-darwin-arm64-bootstrap.tbz .
```

Extract this archive using Archive Utility and now it's time to add the `bin` directory to your path.

### ZSH

Add the following line to your `~/.zshrc`

```bash
export PATH=~/go-darwin-arm64-bootstrap/bin:$PATH
```

Source your new config

```bash
source ~/.zshrc
```


### Fish Shell

Add the following line to your fish config in `~/.config/fish/config.fish`

```fish
set -gx PATH ~/go-darwin-arm64-bootstrap/bin $PATH
```

Source your new config

```fish
source ~/.config/fish/config.fish
```

## Summary

You should now have a working go compiler on your path that can create native Apple Silicon binaries! 🎉