diff --git a/.golangci.yaml b/.golangci.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..eafe55de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.golangci.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,216 @@
+# For full documentation of the configuration options please
+# see: https://github.com/golangci/golangci-lint#config-file.
+
+# options for analysis running
+run:
+  # default concurrency is the available CPU number
+  # concurrency: 4
+
+  # timeout for analysis, e.g. 30s, 5m, default is 1m
+  deadline: 1m
+
+  # exit code when at least one issue was found, default is 1
+  issues-exit-code: 1
+
+  # include test files or not, default is true
+  tests: true
+
+  # list of build tags, all linters use it. Default is empty list.
+  build-tags:
+
+  # which dirs to skip: they won't be analyzed;
+  # can use regexp here: generated.*, regexp is applied on full path;
+  # default value is empty list, but next dirs are always skipped independently
+  # from this option's value:
+  #   	vendor$, third_party$, testdata$, examples$, Godeps$, builtin$
+  skip-dirs:
+
+  # which files to skip: they will be analyzed, but issues from them
+  # won't be reported. Default value is empty list, but there is
+  # no need to include all autogenerated files, we confidently recognize
+  # autogenerated files. If it's not please let us know.
+  skip-files:
+
+
+# output configuration options
+output:
+  # colored-line-number|line-number|json|tab|checkstyle, default is "colored-line-number"
+  format: colored-line-number
+
+  # print lines of code with issue, default is true
+  print-issued-lines: true
+
+  # print linter name in the end of issue text, default is true
+  print-linter-name: true
+
+
+# all available settings of specific linters, we can set an option for
+# a given linter even if we deactivate that same linter at runtime
+linters-settings:
+  errcheck:
+    # report about not checking of errors in type assertions: `a := b.(MyStruct)`;
+    # default is false: such cases aren't reported by default.
+    check-type-assertions: false
+
+    # report about assignment of errors to blank identifier: `num, _ := strconv.Atoi(numStr)`;
+    # default is false: such cases aren't reported by default.
+    check-blank: false
+  govet:
+    # report about shadowed variables
+    check-shadowing: true
+  golint:
+    # minimal confidence for issues, default is 0.8
+    min-confidence: 0.8
+  gofmt:
+    # simplify code: gofmt with `-s` option, true by default
+    simplify: true
+  goimports:
+    # put imports beginning with prefix after 3rd-party packages;
+    # it's a comma-separated list of prefixes
+    local-prefixes: github.com
+  gocyclo:
+    # minimal code complexity to report, 30 by default (but we recommend 10-20)
+    min-complexity: 15
+  maligned:
+    # print struct with more effective memory layout or not, false by default
+    suggest-new: true
+  dupl:
+    # tokens count to trigger issue, 150 by default
+    threshold: 150
+  goconst:
+    # minimal length of string constant, 3 by default
+    min-len: 3
+    # minimal occurrences count to trigger, 3 by default
+    min-occurrences: 3
+  depguard:
+    list-type: blacklist
+    include-go-root: false
+    packages:
+    # List of packages that we would want to blacklist for... reasons.
+  misspell:
+    # Correct spellings using locale preferences for US or UK.
+    # Default is to use a neutral variety of English.
+    # Setting locale to US will correct the British spelling of 'colour' to 'color'.
+    locale: US
+  lll:
+    # max line length, lines longer will be reported. Default is 120.
+    # '\t' is counted as 1 character by default, and can be changed with the tab-width option
+    line-length: 150
+    # tab width in spaces. Default to 1.
+    tab-width: 1
+  unused:
+    # treat code as a program (not a library) and report unused exported identifiers; default is false.
+    # XXX: if you enable this setting, unused will report a lot of false-positives in text editors:
+    # if it's called for subdir of a project it can't find funcs usages. All text editor integrations
+    # with golangci-lint call it on a directory with the changed file.
+    check-exported: false
+  unparam:
+    # call graph construction algorithm (cha, rta). In general, use cha for libraries,
+    # and rta for programs with main packages. Default is cha.
+    algo: rta
+
+    # Inspect exported functions, default is false. Set to true if no external program/library imports your code.
+    # XXX: if you enable this setting, unparam will report a lot of false-positives in text editors:
+    # if it's called for subdir of a project it can't find external interfaces. All text editor integrations
+    # with golangci-lint call it on a directory with the changed file.
+    check-exported: false
+  nakedret:
+    # make an issue if func has more lines of code than this setting and it has naked returns; default is 30
+    max-func-lines: 0 # Warn on all naked returns.
+  prealloc:
+    # XXX: we don't recommend using this linter before doing performance profiling.
+    # For most programs usage of prealloc will be a premature optimization.
+
+    # Report preallocation suggestions only on simple loops that have no returns/breaks/continues/gotos in them.
+    # True by default.
+    simple: true
+    range-loops: true # Report preallocation suggestions on range loops, true by default
+    for-loops: false # Report preallocation suggestions on for loops, false by default
+  gocritic:
+    # which checks should be enabled; can't be combined with 'disabled-checks';
+    # default are: [appendAssign assignOp caseOrder dupArg dupBranchBody dupCase flagDeref
+    # ifElseChain regexpMust singleCaseSwitch sloppyLen switchTrue typeSwitchVar underef
+    # unlambda unslice rangeValCopy defaultCaseOrder];
+    # all checks list: https://github.com/go-critic/checkers
+    enabled-checks:
+      - appendAssign
+      - assignOp
+      - boolExprSimplify
+      - builtinShadow
+      - captLocal
+      - caseOrder
+      - commentedOutImport
+      - defaultCaseOrder
+      - dupArg
+      - dupBranchBody
+      - dupCase
+      - dupSubExpr
+      - elseif
+      - emptyFallthrough
+      - hugeParam
+      - ifElseChain
+      - importShadow
+      - indexAlloc
+      - methodExprCall
+      - nestingReduce
+      - offBy1
+      - ptrToRefParam
+      - regexpMust
+      - singleCaseSwitch
+      - sloppyLen
+      - sloppyReassign
+      - switchTrue
+      - typeSwitchVar
+      - typeUnparen
+      - underef
+      - unlambda
+      - unnecessaryBlock
+      - unslice
+      - valSwap
+      - wrapperFunc
+      - yodaStyleExpr
+
+
+# linters that we should / shouldn't run
+linters:
+  enable-all: true
+  disable:
+    - errcheck
+    - gochecknoglobals
+    - gocyclo
+    - gosec
+    - lll
+    - maligned
+    - prealloc
+
+
+# rules to deal with reported isues
+issues:
+  # List of regexps of issue texts to exclude, empty list by default.
+  # But independently from this option we use default exclude patterns,
+  # it can be disabled by `exclude-use-default: false`. To list all
+  # excluded by default patterns execute `golangci-lint run --help`
+  exclude:
+
+  # Independently from option `exclude` we use default exclude patterns,
+  # it can be disabled by this option. To list all
+  # excluded by default patterns execute `golangci-lint run --help`.
+  # Default value for this option is true.
+  exclude-use-default: true
+
+  # Maximum issues count per one linter. Set to 0 to disable. Default is 50.
+  max-per-linter: 0
+
+  # Maximum count of issues with the same text. Set to 0 to disable. Default is 3.
+  max-same-issues: 0
+
+  # Show only new issues: if there are unstaged changes or untracked files,
+  # only those changes are analyzed, else only changes in HEAD~ are analyzed.
+  # It's a super-useful option for integration of golangci-lint into existing
+  # large codebase. It's not practical to fix all existing issues at the moment
+  # of integration: much better don't allow issues in new code.
+  # Default is false.
+  new: false
+
+  # Show only new issues created after git revision `REV`
+  new-from-rev: "HEAD~1"
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 8c889002..4dd02ee5 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ git:
 env:
   global:
     - GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64
+    - GOLANGCI_VERSION="v1.12.3"
 
 matrix:
   # It's ok if our code fails on unstable development versions of Go.
@@ -26,9 +27,9 @@ notifications:
 
 before_script:
   # Get version info from tags.
-  - MY_VERSION=$(git describe --tags)
+  - MY_VERSION="$(git describe --tags)"
   # Retrieve the golangci-lint linter binary.
-  - curl -sfL https://install.goreleaser.com/github.com/golangci/golangci-lint.sh | bash -s -- -b $GOPATH/bin v1.12.2
+  - curl -sfL https://install.goreleaser.com/github.com/golangci/golangci-lint.sh | bash -s -- -b ${GOPATH}/bin ${GOLANGCI_VERSION}
   # Retrieve and prepare CodeClimate's test coverage reporter.
   - curl -L https://codeclimate.com/downloads/test-reporter/test-reporter-latest-linux-amd64 > ./cc-test-reporter
   - chmod +x ./cc-test-reporter
@@ -36,7 +37,7 @@ before_script:
 
 script:
   # Run the linter.
-  - golangci-lint run --enable-all -D lll -D errcheck -D gosec -D maligned -D prealloc -D gocyclo -D gochecknoglobals
+  - golangci-lint run
   # Run all the tests with the race detector and generate coverage.
   - go test -v -race -coverprofile c.out ./...
   # Run the build script to generate the necessary binaries and images.
diff --git a/bridge/irc/handlers.go b/bridge/irc/handlers.go
index 41d69b0a..c94ea892 100644
--- a/bridge/irc/handlers.go
+++ b/bridge/irc/handlers.go
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ package birc
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"fmt"
-	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"regexp"
 	"strconv"
@@ -180,8 +179,6 @@ func (b *Birc) handlePrivMsg(client *girc.Client, event girc.Event) {
 	rmsg.Text = re.ReplaceAllString(rmsg.Text, "")
 
 	// start detecting the charset
-	var r io.Reader
-	var err error
 	mycharset := b.GetString("Charset")
 	if mycharset == "" {
 		// detect what were sending so that we convert it to utf-8
@@ -202,7 +199,7 @@ func (b *Birc) handlePrivMsg(client *girc.Client, event girc.Event) {
 	case "gbk", "gb18030", "gb2312", "big5", "euc-kr", "euc-jp", "shift-jis", "iso-2022-jp":
 		rmsg.Text = ic.ConvertString("utf-8", b.GetString("Charset"), rmsg.Text)
 	default:
-		r, err = charset.NewReader(mycharset, strings.NewReader(rmsg.Text))
+		r, err := charset.NewReader(mycharset, strings.NewReader(rmsg.Text))
 		if err != nil {
 			b.Log.Errorf("charset to utf-8 conversion failed: %s", err)
 			return