pixi¶

ID: pixi
Links: Home page · Documentation · Repository
Upstream stars: ⭐ 7,799
Last commit: 2026-09-29
Version requirement: >= 0.65
Platforms: 🐧 Linux · 🍎 macOS · 🪟 Windows
Operations: installed · install · upgrade · upgrade_all · remove · cleanup
purl types: pkg:conda/ · pkg:pixi/
CLI name: pixi
Every call: pixi --color=never --no-progress <command>
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: conda-based
Source: pixi.py

pixi installs conda packages, either into a project workspace or machine-wide as global tools.

mpm is system-scoped, so this wrapper drives the pixi global scope alone and never touches a pixi.toml workspace. Global tools resolve from conda channels, conda-forge by default, and land in their own prefix under $PIXI_HOME.

Important

pixi isolates each global tool in its own environment, and mpm keys packages on the environment name, not on the conda package names inside it. The environment is the unit every mutating pixi global verb addresses: uninstall deletes one whole environment and update refreshes one whole environment, neither taking a package name. pixi global install <pkg> names the environment after the package, so for everything mpm installs the two are the same string and every operation round-trips.

Todo

Declare a logo once Simple Icons ships the pixi mark requested in simple-icons/simple-icons#13796, a request already cleared of trademark concerns (labelled permission not needed). Their pixiv mark is an unrelated brand, not a stand-in.

What `mpm` adds to `pixi`¶

mpm reaches across every manager at once, not pixi alone: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover pixi alongside conda, mamba, micromamba and any other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the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 `pixi` commands, in `mpm`¶

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

To…	With `pixi`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`pixi global list --json`	`mpm --pixi installed`
Install a package	`pixi global install hyperfine`	`mpm install pkg:pixi/hyperfine`
Upgrade one package	`pixi global update hyperfine`	`mpm --pixi upgrade hyperfine`
Upgrade everything	`pixi global update`	`mpm --pixi upgrade --all`
Remove a package	`pixi global uninstall hyperfine`	`mpm remove pkg:pixi/hyperfine`
Clear caches	`pixi clean cache --yes`	`mpm --pixi cleanup --cache`

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	Notes
`installed`	✅	An environment is reported as the single package it is named after, with no version once its contents diverge; its extra packages are invisible to `mpm`.
`outdated`	❌	Nothing reports upgradable packages without performing the upgrade (prefix-dev/pixi#6279, closed pointing at a workspace-scoped dry run); `upgrade --all` maps to the native `pixi global update`.
`orphans`
`search`	❌	The `--json` mode cannot be capped and queries every known conda subdir, so a search would stall on it.
`install`	✅
`upgrade`	✅
`upgrade_all`	✅
`remove`	✅	Removing a package deletes its whole environment, taking any extra packages installed beside it.
`sync`	❌	The `pixi global sync` command reconciles the manifest by installing and removing, so it mutates rather than refreshes.
`cleanup`	✅
`doctor`

Configuration¶

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

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

[mpm.overrides.pixi]
cli_names = [
    "pixi",
]
cli_search_path = []
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = []
pre_args = [
    "--color=never",
    "--no-progress",
]
pre_cmds = []
requirement = ">=0.65.0"
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "--version",
]
version_regexes = [
    "^pixi\\s+(?P<version>\\S+)",
]

The arguments and environment variables listed in the box atop this page are forced on every pixi 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 pixi, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --pixi dump pixi.toml, then mpm restore pixi.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --pixi 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 pixi’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: 🚧 Proposed (merged for pixi global, unreleased; workspaces since 0.47.0)
Mechanism: exclude-newer in pixi.toml and the global manifest, declarative only: no flag or env var
Reference: prefix-dev/pixi#7016

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: anaconda.org / conda-forge (pkg:conda)
Retraction: Relabel: “we do not allow edits or the deletion of packages on conda-forge” (immutability); a bad artifact is labelled broken and “Users will no longer be able to install them by default” (procedure)
Publish date: ✅ upload_time, with the broken label carried in labels (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 pixi well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ pixi --color=never --no-progress global list --json
[
  {
    "name": "ripgrep",
    "dependencies": [
      {
        "name": "ripgrep",
        "version": "14.1.0"
      }
    ],
    "exposed": [
      {
        "exposed_name": "rg",
        "executable": "rg"
      }
    ]
  }
]

Version check¶

The version is probed by running:

$ pixi --version
pixi 0.78.0

and extracted with:

r"^pixi\s+(?P<version>\S+)"

Upstream project¶

Metrics	`prefix-dev/pixi`
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Metadata

Changelog¶

8.0.1 (2026-09-23)
- Record the global exclude-newer gate pixi merged, which stays declarative-only, so mpm has no knob to inject.
8.0.0 (2026-09-20)
- Resolve the pkg:conda, pkg:golang, pkg:haxe and pkg:nuget pURL types to these managers, which raised instead of routing.
- Add the pixi global tool manager with installed, install, upgrade, remove and cleanup support, packages keyed on the global environment pixi global addresses.