# Modules Part 04: Mirrors, Checksums and Athens

DevFeed: [Modules Part 04: Mirrors, Checksums and Athens](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/modules-part-04-mirrors-checksums-and-athens-22158.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.ardanlabs.com/blog/2020/02/modules-04-mirros-checksums-athens.html>)

Published: 2020-02-10T00:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [William Kennedy](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/william-kennedy.md>)

Topics: [modules](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/modules.md>), [Go Language](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/go-language.md>), [Dependency management](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/dependency-management.md>), [Security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/security.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/systems.md>)

Tags: [ardan-labs](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ardan-labs.md>), [blog](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blog.md>), [dependencies](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dependencies.md>), [go](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/go.md>), [go-programming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/go-programming.md>), [golang](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/golang.md>), [modules](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/modules.md>), [programming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/programming.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>)

## AI overview

This tutorial explains how Go's module mirror, checksum database, and Athens work. It describes their purposes, configuration options, and use in example programs, including module retrieval, caching, integrity validation, and privacy considerations.

## Source excerpt

Series Index Why and What Projects, Dependencies and Gopls Minimal Version Selection Mirrors, Checksums and Athens Gopls Improvements Vendoring Introduction One of the longer standing questions I had when first learning about modules was how the module mirror, checksum database and Athens worked. The Go team has written extensively about the module mirror and checksum database, but I hope to consolidate the most important information here. In this post, I provide the purpose of these systems, the different configuration options you have, and show these systems in action using example programs.