'Unmarshal' is called with the incorrect argument

Reports calls to json.Unmarshal and similar functions if the argument that is passed to store the result is not a pointer or an interface.

These calls will fail and return an error.

For more information about Unmarshal, refer to func Unmarshal at go.dev.

Example:

var animals []Animal
err := json.Unmarshal(jsonData, animals) // always returns an error

After the Prepend '&' quick-fix is applied:

var animals []Animal
err := json.Unmarshal(jsonData, &animals)

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

GoVetUnmarshal

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Go | Probable bugs

Inspection ID: GoVetUnmarshal

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection GoVetUnmarshal

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

GoLand 2025.2

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	GoLand 2025.2, Qodana for Go 2025.2,
Can be installed with plugin:	Go, 252.26654.0

Last modified: 18 September 2025