Neovim mason-nvim¶

ID: mason
Link: Repository
Upstream stars: ⭐ 10,497
Last commit: 2026-06-11
Version requirement: >= 2
Platforms: 🅱️ BSD · 🐧 Linux · 🍎 macOS · ⨂ Unix · 🪟 Windows
Operations: installed · install · upgrade · remove · sync
purl types: pkg:mason/
CLI name: nvim
Every call: nvim --headless <command> -c cquit
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: neovim-based
Source: neovim.py

Installer of LSP servers, DAP adapters, linters and formatters for Neovim.

Important

mason is not a plugin manager, which is what separates it from Lazy and Vim_Pack. Those install Lua that runs inside the editor; mason installs ordinary developer tools, the same stylua or rust-analyzer binaries another host might get from Homebrew.

Note

Wrapping it is what makes those tools visible at all: mason redirects every backend it shells out to into the package’s own directory, so a pyright installed by mason appears in no other manager’s inventory.

Warning

The install root is assumed to be mason’s default. A configuration moving install_root_dir elsewhere leaves the inventory empty.

What `mpm` adds to `mason`¶

mpm reaches across every manager at once, not mason alone: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover mason alongside every other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of materials.

Every mpm command also gains --dry-run and --plan previews, cross-scheme version comparison and purl identifiers. See manager augmentations for how each one is built.

Your `mason` commands, in `mpm`¶

You already know mason: each operation maps one-to-one onto mpm, in an interface shared by every manager.

To…	With `mason`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`nvim --clean 'lua local root = vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/mason" .. "/packages" for _, dir in ipairs(vim.fn.glob(root .. "/*", true, true)) do local f = dir .. "/mason-receipt.json" if (vim.uv or vim.loop).fs_stat(f) then local ok, r = pcall(vim.json.decode, table.concat(vim.fn.readfile(f), "\n")) if ok and r and r.name then local s = r.source or r.primary_source io.write(r.name .. "\t" .. ((s and s.id) or "") .. "\n") end end end os.exit(0)' 'cquit'`	`mpm --mason installed`
Install a package	`nvim 'MasonInstall stylua' 'qall' 'cquit'`	`mpm install pkg:mason/cquit`
Upgrade one package	`nvim 'MasonInstall stylua' 'qall' 'cquit'`	`mpm --mason upgrade cquit`
Remove a package	`nvim 'MasonUninstall stylua' 'qall' 'cquit'`	`mpm remove pkg:mason/cquit`

Prefix any command above with --dry-run to simulate the underlying manager calls without touching the system: the safe way to watch what mpm would do before trusting it.

Operations¶

Operation	Supported
`installed`	✅
`outdated`
`orphans`
`search`
`install`	✅
`upgrade`	✅
`upgrade_all`
`remove`	✅
`sync`	✅
`cleanup`
`doctor`

Configuration¶

Ignore mason on the mpm CLI by passing the --no-mason option.
Ignore it for every run in your configuration:
```
[mpm]
mason = false
```
Raise the timeout of all mason calls:
```
[mpm.overrides.mason]
timeout = 900
```

Run mpm config-template mason to print all overridable settings for your configuration file:

[mpm.overrides.mason]
cli_names = [
    "nvim",
]
cli_search_path = []
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = [
    "-c",
    "cquit",
]
pre_args = [
    "--headless",
]
pre_cmds = []
requirement = ">=2.0.0"
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "--clean",
    "--headless",
    "-c",
    "lua local d = vim.fn.stdpath(\"data\") local c = vim.fn.glob(d .. \"/lazy/mason.nvim\", true, true) vim.list_extend(c, vim.fn.glob(d .. \"/site/pack/*/*/mason.nvim\", true, true)) for _, p in ipairs(c) do vim.opt.rtp:prepend(p) local ok, m = pcall(require, \"mason.version\") if ok then io.write(\"mason \" .. m.VERSION) break end end os.exit(0)",
]
version_regexes = [
    "mason v?(?P<version>\\S+)",
]

The arguments and environment variables listed in the box atop this page are forced on every mason call, so runs stay quiet, non-interactive and reproducible: the defaults you would set in CI anyway.

Recipes¶

A few jobs you would otherwise script around mason, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --mason dump mason.toml, then mpm restore mason.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --mason sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).

Privilege escalation¶

mpm runs this manager as the current user and never prepends sudo by default. Flip the policy for its privileged operations with --sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

None of its operations is privileged.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Cooldown¶

State of Neovim mason-nvim’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: ❌ None

A cooldown only pays off where a compromised release can be withdrawn while the clock runs, and can only be emulated where the registry dates its releases. From the retraction table:

Registry: GitHub release assets
Retraction: None: withdrawing a build is the upstream author deleting their own release or tag. Nothing sits between them and the user
Publish date: ✅ server-set published_at on each release (REST API)

With --cooldown set, mpm skips this manager’s install and upgrade operations rather than run them unguarded (fail-closed); --cooldown best-effort opts back in.

Reference traces¶

A collection of raw native outputs captured from the manager’s own CLI and recorded in the manager source. If you know Neovim mason-nvim well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ nvim --headless --clean \
> -c 'lua local root = vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/mason" .. "/packages" for _, dir in ipairs(vim.fn.glob(root .. "/*", true, true)) do local f = dir .. "/mason-receipt.json" if (vim.uv or vim.loop).fs_stat(f) then local ok, r = pcall(vim.json.decode, table.concat(vim.fn.readfile(f), "\n")) if ok and r and r.name then local s = r.source or r.primary_source io.write(r.name .. "\t" .. ((s and s.id) or "") .. "\n") end end end os.exit(0)' \
> -c 'cquit'
stylua	pkg:github/johnnymorganz/[email protected]

Version check¶

The version is probed by running:

$ nvim --clean --headless -c lua local d = vim.fn.stdpath("data") local c = vim.fn.glob(d .. "/lazy/mason.nvim", true, true) vim.list_extend(c, vim.fn.glob(d .. "/site/pack/*/*/mason.nvim", true, true)) for _, p in ipairs(c) do vim.opt.rtp:prepend(p) local ok, m = pcall(require, "mason.version") if ok then io.write("mason " .. m.VERSION) break end end os.exit(0)
mason v2.3.1

and extracted with:

r"mason v?(?P<version>\S+)"

Upstream project¶

Metrics	`mason-org/mason.nvim`
Activity
Popularity
Metadata

Changelog¶

8.0.0 (2026-09-20)
- Add mason, the Neovim installer for LSP servers, DAP adapters, linters and formatters, its inventory read off mason’s install tree by a --clean Neovim.