The only thing that seems like it's missing here, in the instructions for the project, are that it should be pulled down with go get instead of git clone, which

The only thing that seems like it's missing here, in the instructions for the project, are that it should be pulled down with go get instead of git clone, which would have resolved the dependencies for you. Obviously, correct me if I'm wrong, but... that doesn't ever actually change for any other language. You still do a pip install or an npm install and then another command to run and/or compile your code. So, really, it's a documentation failure, and on the part of the project authors, at that. You never used Go prior, so you didn't know to use go get. You used Python, Node.js, etc for a first time, too, at some point, and the only reasonable conclusion is that you also didn't know to use <insert language-package-manager-relevant command here> that first time, either. Unless, of course, the project you were using it for documented that. Or you went off and searched for it yourself.