Sheldon¶

ID: sheldon
Links: Documentation · Repository
Upstream stars: ⭐ 1,587
Last commit: 2026-07-01
Version requirement: >= 0.6
Platforms: 🐧 Linux · 🍎 macOS
Operations: upgrade_all · remove
purl types: pkg:sheldon/
CLI name: sheldon
Forced environment: NO_COLOR=1
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: sheldon
Source: sheldon.py

Sheldon is a fast, configurable plugin manager for any shell.

Plugins are declared in a plugins.toml config file, each under a unique local name, and materialized into a plugins.lock file that Sheldon generates. Packages are identified by that local name, which is what every command below takes.

Unlike the other shell plugin managers mpm wraps, Sheldon is a real compiled binary rather than a sourced shell function, so it needs no interpreter wrapper: mpm calls sheldon directly.

What `mpm` adds to `sheldon`¶

mpm reaches across every manager at once, not sheldon alone: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover sheldon alongside every other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill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

Operations¶

Operation	Supported	Notes
`installed`	❌	Sheldon ships no command that prints its plugins; the inventory lives in the `plugins.toml` config file.
`outdated`	❌	Sheldon compares nothing against its remotes short of performing the update; `upgrade --all` still works.
`orphans`
`search`
`install`	❌	The `sheldon add` command takes a local name and a source flag, and `mpm` cannot guess the source from an id.
`upgrade`
`upgrade_all`	✅
`remove`	✅
`sync`
`cleanup`
`doctor`

Configuration¶

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

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

[mpm.overrides.sheldon]
cli_names = [
    "sheldon",
]
cli_search_path = []
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = []
pre_args = []
pre_cmds = []
requirement = ">=0.6.0"
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "--version",
]
version_regexes = [
    "sheldon\\s+(?P<version>\\S+)",
]

[mpm.overrides.sheldon.extra_env]
NO_COLOR = "1"

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

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

Status: ❌ None (clones a Git branch or tag, no release feed)

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: Upstream Git clones
Retraction: None: a plugin is cloned straight from its upstream repository, so withdrawing a bad revision is its author force-pushing, retagging or deleting it themselves. No index sits in between
Publish date: ❌ a commit or tag date is set by the author and freely rewritable

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.

Version check¶

The version is probed by running:

$ sheldon --version
sheldon 0.8.2

and extracted with:

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

Upstream project¶

Metrics	`rossmacarthur/sheldon`
Activity
Popularity
Metadata

Changelog¶

8.1.0.dev0 (unreleased)
- Fix remove exiting on “No manager selected” when the only manager selected keeps no inventory: that manager now gets the package as is.
8.0.0 (2026-09-20)
- Add the Sheldon shell plugin manager with upgrade and remove support. It declares no installed, Sheldon printing no listing, and no install, sheldon add needing both a local name and a source flag.