GitHub - home-lang/pantry: An extremely performant & universal dependency manager that just works.

A modern dependency manager for your system and your projects. Effortlessly manage development tools, runtime environments, and project dependencies with automatic environment isolation. Think Homebrew meets project-aware dependency management.

What is pantry

pantry is a comprehensive dependency management solution that bridges the gap between system-wide package management and project-specific environments. Whether you're setting up a new development machine, managing system tools, or working on projects with specific dependency requirements, pantry provides a unified interface for all your dependency needs.

System Management:

Install and manage development tools system-wide
Automatic PATH configuration and shell integration
Cross-platform compatibility (macOS, Linux, Windows)
Smart permission handling and installation paths

Project Management:

Automatic project environment detection and activation
Isolated dependency environments per project
Version-specific tool installation
Seamless switching between project contexts

At its core, pantry hosts its own package registry with 1700+ system packages, 50+ desktop apps, and pre-built binaries — all served from CDN. No external dependency managers required.

Learn more in the docs: Why pantry, Quick Start.

Features

pantry transforms how you manage dependencies across your entire development workflow:

System-Wide Dependency Management

📦 Global Tool Installation — Install development tools and runtimes system-wide with automatic PATH management
🔧 Smart Installation Paths — Automatically chooses /usr/local for system-wide access or ~/.local for user-specific installs (pkgm compatible)
🔌 Shell Integration — Seamless integration with your shell for immediate tool availability
🪟 Cross-Platform Support — Consistent experience across macOS, Linux, and Windows

Service Management

⚡ 68 Pre-configured Services — PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka, Prometheus, Grafana, Vault, and more
🚀 One-Command Service Control — Start, stop, restart services with automatic configuration
🏥 Health Monitoring — Built-in health checks with automatic status detection
🔧 Auto-Configuration — Default configuration files generated for each service
🔐 Configurable Database Credentials — Customize database usernames, passwords, and authentication methods
🖥️ Cross-Platform Service Management — Uses launchd on macOS, systemd on Linux

Project-Aware Environment Management

🌍 Automatic Environment Isolation — Project-specific environments that activate when you enter a project directory
🎯 Dependency Detection — Automatically reads deps.yaml, dependencies.yaml, package.json, pyproject.toml, and other project files
🔄 Context Switching — Seamlessly switch between different project environments
📋 Version Management — Install and manage specific versions of tools per project
🗂️ Environment Management — List, inspect, clean, and remove project environments with readable identifiers

Commit Publishing (pkg-pr-new Alternative)

🚀 Publish from Any Commit — Publish packages directly from git commits without version bumps
📦 Monorepo Support — Automatically discovers and publishes all packages in a monorepo
🔗 Instant Install URLs — Get shareable install URLs for every published commit
🤖 CI/CD Ready — Drop-in replacement for pkg-pr-new in GitHub Actions

Desktop Apps

🖥️ 50+ Desktop Apps — Install VS Code, Discord, Obsidian, Spotify, and more via pantry install
📦 Same Pipeline — Apps go through the same registry as system packages (S3 + metadata)
🔄 Daily Updates — Desktop apps checked and rebuilt daily via GitHub Actions
🌐 Browse All — curl https://registry.pantry.dev/desktop-apps | jq

Developer Experience

⚡ Fast Operations — Native Zig CLI with pre-built binaries from CDN
🗑️ Clean Removal — Remove packages or completely uninstall with proper cleanup
⬆️ Self-Update — pantry upgrade to get the latest version, --canary for pre-releases
🎛️ Flexible Configuration — Customize behavior through config files or command-line options

Why pantry

Modern development requires managing dependencies at multiple levels - from system tools to project-specific requirements. Traditional approaches fall short:

Traditional Package Managers (Homebrew, apt, etc.):

❌ Global conflicts — Different projects need different versions
❌ Slow operations — Installing or updating can take minutes
❌ Manual environment management — Switching between project contexts is manual
❌ PATH pollution — All tools are globally available, causing conflicts

Manual Dependency Management:

❌ Inconsistent setups — Different team members have different environments
❌ Complex PATH management — Manual shell configuration is error-prone
❌ Version drift — Hard to maintain consistent tool versions
❌ Platform differences — Different setup procedures for each OS

pantry's Solution:

✅ Unified Management — Single tool for both system and project dependencies
✅ Automatic Isolation — Project environments activate automatically
✅ Fast Operations — Efficient package management with intelligent caching
✅ Consistent Experience — Same commands and behavior across all platforms
✅ Smart Defaults — Sensible installation paths and configuration out of the box

Installation

curl -fsSL https://pantry.dev | bash

That's it. This downloads the latest pre-built binary for your platform, installs it to ~/.local/bin, and configures your PATH.

To install a specific version:

export PANTRY_VERSION=0.8.7 && curl -fsSL https://pantry.dev | bash

To install to a custom location:

export PANTRY_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin && curl -fsSL https://pantry.dev | bash

Quick Start

After installing, bootstrap your shell integration:

This sets up:

Shell integration for automatic project environment activation
PATH configuration
Global tool management

System-Wide Tool Management

Install and manage development tools across your entire system:

# Install essential development tools system-wide
pantry install node python go rust

# Install specific versions
pantry install node@22 python@3.12

# Install to /usr/local (default system-wide location)
pantry install typescript --system

# Or specify any custom path
pantry install docker --path /opt/tools

# Use shorthand for quick installs
pantry i node@22 typescript@5.7

Smart Installation Behavior:

Default: Installs to /usr/local if writable, otherwise ~/.local
System-wide: Use --system for explicit system installation (same as default)
Custom paths: Use --path <directory> for any location
Automatic PATH: Tools are immediately available in new shells

Project Environment Management

pantry automatically manages project-specific dependencies:

# Create a project with dependencies
echo "dependencies:

  - node@22
  - typescript@5.7
  - bun@1.2" > dependencies.yaml

# Environment activates automatically when you enter the directory
cd my-project
# → ✅ Environment activated for /path/to/my-project

# Tools are available in project context
node --version  # Uses project-specific Node.js
tsc --version   # Uses project-specific TypeScript

# Leave project - environment deactivates automatically
cd ..
# → 🔄 Environment deactivated

Learn more: Environment Management, Package Management, Configuration, FAQ.

Supported Project Files:

deps.yaml / deps.yml
dependencies.yaml / dependencies.yml
pantry.yaml / pantry.yml
pkgx.yaml / pkgx.yml
package.json (Node.js projects)
pyproject.toml (Python projects)
Cargo.toml (Rust projects)
And more...

Environment Management

Manage your project environments with human-readable identifiers:

# List all development environments
pantry env:list

# Inspect a specific environment
pantry env:inspect my-project_1a2b3c4d-d89abc12

# Clean up old or failed environments
pantry env:clean --dry-run

# Remove a specific environment
pantry env:remove old-project_5e6f7g8h --force

Environment Hash Format: {project-name}_{8-char-hex}-d{8-char-dep-hash}

final-project_7db6cf06-d89abc12 - Project path hash plus dependency fingerprint
working-test_208a31ec-d1029a7b - Human-readable with version-aware suffix
my-app_1a2b3c4d-deadbeef - Collision-resistant, version-switching on cd

Package Management

Remove packages and manage your installation:

# Remove specific system tools
pantry remove node python

# Remove project-specific versions (using uninstall command)
pantry uninstall node@22

# See what would be removed
pantry uninstall python --dry-run

# Complete system cleanup
pantry clean --force

Service Management

Manage development services with ease:

# Start essential development services
pantry start postgres redis

# Start multiple services at once
pantry start postgres redis nginx prometheus

# Check service status
pantry status postgres
pantry services

# Stop services when done
pantry stop postgres redis

# Enable auto-start for essential services
pantry enable postgres redis

Available Services (68):

Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis, Valkey, InfluxDB, CockroachDB, Neo4j, ClickHouse, CouchDB, Cassandra, SurrealDB, DragonflyDB, FerretDB, TiDB, ScyllaDB, KeyDB, PocketBase
Search: Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Meilisearch, Typesense, Solr
Web Servers: Nginx, Caddy, Apache (httpd), HAProxy, Traefik, Varnish, Envoy
Message Queues: Kafka, RabbitMQ, Apache Pulsar, NATS, Mosquitto, Redpanda
Monitoring: Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, Loki, Alertmanager, VictoriaMetrics
Infrastructure: Vault, Consul, etcd, MinIO, SonarQube, Temporal, Nomad, Zookeeper
Development & CI/CD: Jenkins, LocalStack, Verdaccio, Gitea, Mailpit
API & Backend: Hasura, Keycloak
AI/ML: Ollama
DNS: CoreDNS, Unbound, dnsmasq
Networking: Cloudflared, Tor, Syncthing, Doppler
PHP: PHP-FPM
Caching: Memcached

Configure services in deps.yaml

Add services to your dependency file to auto-start when the project environment activates:

# deps.yaml
dependencies:

  - node@22
  - postgresql@15

services:
  enabled: true
  autoStart:

    - postgres
    - redis

Database Configuration

Customize database credentials for all database services:

# Configure database credentials globally
export pantry_DB_USERNAME="myuser"
export pantry_DB_PASSWORD="mypassword"
export pantry_DB_AUTH_METHOD="md5"  # PostgreSQL: trust|md5|scram-sha-256

# Start databases with custom credentials
pantry start postgres mysql
# Creates project-specific databases with your configured credentials

Default Credentials (secure for development):

Username: root
Password: password
Auth Method: trust (PostgreSQL)

Configuration Options:

Environment variables: pantry_DB_USERNAME, pantry_DB_PASSWORD, pantry_DB_AUTH_METHOD
Config file: pantry.config.ts → services.database
Per-project databases automatically created with your credentials

Commit Publishing

Publish packages directly from git commits — a built-in replacement for pkg-pr-new:

# Publish all packages in a monorepo from the current commit
pantry publish:commit './packages/*'

# Publish a single package
pantry publish:commit ./my-package

# Dry run to see what would be published
pantry publish:commit './packages/*' --dry-run

# Use a custom registry
pantry publish:commit './packages/*' --registry https://registry.example.com

Each published package gets an install URL tied to the commit SHA:

# Install a specific commit's package
npm install https://registry.pantry.dev/commits/abc1234/@scope/my-package/tarball

GitHub Actions integration — replace pkg-pr-new in your CI:

# Before (pkg-pr-new)
- run: bunx pkg-pr-new publish './packages/*'

# After (pantry)
- run: pantry publish:commit './packages/*'

Desktop Apps

# Install desktop apps (same as system packages)
pantry install discord
pantry install obsidian
pantry install code.visualstudio.com

# Browse available apps
curl https://registry.pantry.dev/desktop-apps | jq
curl https://registry.pantry.dev/desktop-apps?category=Development | jq

Self-Update

# Upgrade pantry to the latest stable release
pantry upgrade

# Upgrade to the latest canary (pre-release) build
pantry upgrade --canary

# Check what would be upgraded without making changes
pantry upgrade --dry-run

Advanced Operations

# Create executable shims
pantry shim node@22 typescript@5.7

# List all installed packages
pantry list

# Update packages
pantry update node python --latest

# Cache management
pantry cache:stats     # Show cache statistics
pantry cache:clean     # Clean old cached packages
pantry cache:clear     # Clear all cache

# Install additional tools
pantry bootstrap  # Bootstrap essential tools
pantry bun     # Install Bun runtime

Configuration

Customize pantry's behavior for your system and projects:

import type { PantryConfig } from 'ts-pantry'

const config: PantryConfig = {
  // System-wide installation preferences
  installationPath: '/usr/local', // Default system location
  sudoPassword: '', // Password for sudo operations, can be loaded from `SUDO_PASSWORD` environment variable

  // Development environment settings
  devAware: true, // Enable dev-aware installations
  symlinkVersions: true, // Create version-specific symlinks
  forceReinstall: false, // Force reinstall if already installed

  // Operation settings
  verbose: true, // Detailed logging
  maxRetries: 3, // Retry failed operations
  timeout: 60000, // Operation timeout in milliseconds

  // PATH and shell integration
  shimPath: '~/.local/bin', // Custom shim location
  autoAddToPath: true, // Automatic PATH management

  // Shell message configuration
  showShellMessages: true,
  shellActivationMessage: '✅ Environment activated for {path}',
  shellDeactivationMessage: 'Environment deactivated',

  // Service management configuration
  services: {
    enabled: true, // Enable service management
    dataDir: '~/.local/share/pantry/services', // Services data directory
    logDir: '~/.local/share/pantry/logs', // Services log directory
    autoRestart: true, // Auto-restart failed services
    startupTimeout: 30, // Service startup timeout
    shutdownTimeout: 10, // Service shutdown timeout
  },

  // Registry and installation method
  useRegistry: true, // Use package registry
  installMethod: 'curl', // Installation method
  installPath: '/usr/local', // Installation path (same as installationPath)
}

export default config

See Configuration Guide for all options.

GitHub Action

Integrate pantry into your CI/CD workflows:

- name: Setup Development Environment

  uses: home-lang/pantry-installer@v1
  with:
    packages: node@22 typescript@5.7 bun@1.2.14

See GitHub Action Documentation for details.

Advanced Usage

Explore advanced dependency management topics:

Commit Publishing (pkg-pr-new alternative)
Service Management
Project Environment Configuration
Custom Shims and Tool Management
Cross-platform Compatibility
Performance Optimization
API Reference

Comparing to Alternatives

vs Traditional Package Managers (Homebrew, apt, yum)

🎯 Project Awareness: Automatic project environment management vs manual setup
⚡ Speed: Faster installations with intelligent caching
🔒 Isolation: Project-specific versions vs global conflicts
🌍 Cross-Platform: Consistent experience across all operating systems
⚙️ Service Management: Built-in service management vs manual configuration

vs Language-Specific Managers (nvm, pyenv, rbenv)

🔄 Unified Interface: Single tool for all languages vs multiple managers
🤖 Automatic Switching: Context-aware environment activation
📦 Broader Scope: Manages system tools beyond just language runtimes
🛠️ Integrated Workflow: Seamless integration between system and project dependencies

vs Container-Based Solutions (Docker, devcontainers)

🚀 Lightweight: Native performance without virtualization overhead
💻 System Integration: Tools available in your native shell and IDE
🔧 Flexible: Mix system-wide and project-specific tools as needed
⚡ Instant: No container startup time or resource overhead
🎛️ Service Management: Native service management without containers

Changelog

Please see our releases page for information on changes.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Community

For help or discussion:

Postcardware

"Software that is free, but hopes for a postcard." We love receiving postcards from around the world showing where Stacks is being used! We showcase them on our website too.

Our address: Stacks.js, 12665 Village Ln #2306, Playa Vista, CA 90094, United States 🌎

Credits

Max Howell - for creating pkgx and Homebrew
pkgm & dev - thanks for the inspiration
Chris Breuer
All Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see LICENSE for more information.

Made with 💙

What is pantry

Features

System-Wide Dependency Management

Service Management

Project-Aware Environment Management

Commit Publishing (pkg-pr-new Alternative)

Desktop Apps

Developer Experience

Why pantry

Installation

Quick Start

System-Wide Tool Management

Project Environment Management

Environment Management

Package Management

Service Management

Configure services in deps.yaml

Database Configuration

Commit Publishing

Desktop Apps

Self-Update

Advanced Operations

Configuration

GitHub Action

Advanced Usage

Comparing to Alternatives

vs Traditional Package Managers (Homebrew, apt, yum)

vs Language-Specific Managers (nvm, pyenv, rbenv)

vs Container-Based Solutions (Docker, devcontainers)

Changelog

Contributing

Community

Postcardware

Credits

Sponsors

License