diff --git a/action.yml b/action.yml
index 582d5a4..b683b92 100644
--- a/action.yml
+++ b/action.yml
@@ -17,7 +17,11 @@ runs:
           *) echo "better-setup-go: unsupported arch $(uname -m)" >&2; exit 1 ;;
         esac
         rm -rf /usr/local/go   # a base-image GOROOT under the same path corrupts on overlay
-        curl -fsSL "https://go.dev/dl/go${v}.linux-${arch}.tar.gz" | tar -xz -C /usr/local
+        # download-to-file with retries: a piped stream that truncates mid-archive leaves a
+        # half-extracted GOROOT that fails far away from its cause
+        curl --retry 3 --retry-delay 2 -fsSL -o /tmp/go.tgz "https://go.dev/dl/go${v}.linux-${arch}.tar.gz"
+        tar -xzf /tmp/go.tgz -C /usr/local
+        rm -f /tmp/go.tgz
         ln -sf /usr/local/go/bin/go /usr/local/bin/go
         ln -sf /usr/local/go/bin/gofmt /usr/local/bin/gofmt
         go version