cache-restore-only example

README.md

@@ -175,6 +175,71 @@ steps:
 
   - run: go run hello.go
   ```
+**Restore-Only Cache**
+
+```yaml
+## In some workflows, you may want to restore a cache without saving it. This can help reduce cache writes and storage usage in workflows that only need to read from cache
+jobs:
+  build:
+    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
+
+      - name: Setup Go
+        id: setup-go
+        uses: actions/setup-go@v6
+        with:
+          go-version: '1.24'
+          cache: false
+
+      - name: Set Go cache variables (Linux/macOS)
+        if: runner.os != 'Windows'
+        run: |
+          echo "GO_MOD_CACHE=$(go env GOMODCACHE)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          echo "GO_BUILD_CACHE=$(go env GOCACHE)" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+      - name: Set Go cache variables (Windows)
+        if: runner.os == 'Windows'
+        shell: pwsh
+        run: |
+          echo "GO_MOD_CACHE=$(go env GOMODCACHE)" | Out-File $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
+          echo "GO_BUILD_CACHE=$(go env GOCACHE)"   | Out-File $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
+      - name: Save lowercase arch (POSIX)
+        if: runner.os != 'Windows'
+        run: echo "ARCH=$(echo '${{ runner.arch }}' | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+
+      - name: Save lowercase arch (Windows)
+        if: runner.os == 'Windows'
+        shell: pwsh
+        run: |
+          $arch = "${{ runner.arch }}".ToLower()
+          echo "ARCH=$arch" | Out-File $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
+      - name: Set cache OS suffix (Ubuntu only)
+        if: runner.os == 'Linux'
+        run: echo "CACHE_OS_SUFFIX=$ImageOS-" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+
+      - name: Restore Go cache
+        id: go-cache
+        uses: actions/cache/restore@v4
+        with:
+          path: |
+            ${{ env.GO_MOD_CACHE }}
+            ${{ env.GO_BUILD_CACHE }}
+          key: setup-go-${{ runner.os }}-${{ env.ARCH }}-${{ env.CACHE_OS_SUFFIX }}go-${{ steps.setup-go.outputs.go-version }}-${{ hashFiles('**/go.sum') }}
+
+      - name: Download modules
+        run: go mod download
+
+      - name: Build
+        run: go build ./...
+```
+
+> If there are several builds on the same repo it might make sense to create a cache in one build and use it in the
+others. The action [actions/cache/restore](https://github.com/actions/cache/tree/main/restore#only-restore-cache)
+should be used in this case.
 
 ## Getting go version from the go.mod file