Owing to the high electrochemical reactivity and infinite volume expansion of lithium metal anode, the uncontrollable lithium dendrite growth drags the lithium metal anode out of the real application for a long time. Herein, a heterogeneous seed layer of Au nanoparticles (NPs) is uniformly deposited on the 3D porous vertical graphene nanosheets on carbon cloth (Au-VG/CC) to construct a lithiophilic surface, achieving a smooth and dendrite-free morphology. As a result, Au-VG/CC electrode delivers a small voltage hysteresis of 67.2 mV and a long cycling life of more than 500 h at a high current density of 5 mA cm⁻² with 5 mAh cm⁻². Results of XRD and in-situ transmission electron microscopy indicate that the formed lithiophilic layer is Li₃Au which can guide the lithium deposition. Moreover, a full battery assembled with Li@Au-VG/CC as the anode and LiFePO₄ as the cathode delivers 77.3 mAh g⁻¹ at 100 mA g⁻¹ after 200 cycles.