Installation

To install pixi you can run the following command in your terminal:

Linux & macOSWindows

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | sh

If your system doesn't have curl, you can use wget:

wget -qO- https://pixi.sh/install.sh | sh

What does this do?

The above invocation will automatically download the latest version of pixi, extract it, and move the pixi binary to ~/.pixi/bin. The script will also extend the PATH environment variable in the startup script of your shell to include ~/.pixi/bin. This allows you to invoke pixi from anywhere.

Download installer

Or run:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm -useb https://pixi.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

What does this do?

The above invocation will automatically download the latest version of pixi, extract it, and move the pixi binary to %UserProfile%\.pixi\bin. The command will also add %UserProfile%\.pixi\bin to your PATH environment variable, allowing you to invoke pixi from anywhere.

Now restart your terminal or shell to make the installation effective.

Don't trust our link? Check the script!

You can check the installation sh script: download and the ps1: download. The scripts are open source and available on GitHub.

Don't forget to add autocompletion!

After installing Pixi, you can enable autocompletion for your shell. See the Autocompletion section below for instructions.

Update#

Updating is as simple as installing, rerunning the installation script gets you the latest version.

pixi self-update

Or get a specific Pixi version using:

pixi self-update --version x.y.z

Note

If you've used a package manager like brew, mamba, conda, paru etc. to install pixi you must use the built-in update mechanism. e.g. brew upgrade pixi.

Alternative Installation Methods#

Although we recommend installing Pixi through the above method we also provide additional installation methods.

Homebrew#

Pixi is available via homebrew. To install Pixi via homebrew simply run:

brew install pixi

Windows Installer#

We provide an msi installer on our GitHub releases page. The installer will download Pixi and add it to the PATH.

Winget#

winget install prefix-dev.pixi

Scoop#

scoop install main/pixi

Download From GitHub Releases#

Pixi is a single executable and can be run without any external dependencies. That means you can manually download the suitable archive for your architecture and operating system from our GitHub releases, unpack it and then use it as is. If you want pixi itself or the executables installed via pixi global to be available in your PATH, you have to add them manually. The executables are located in PIXI_HOME/bin.

Install From Source#

pixi is 100% written in Rust, and therefore it can be installed, built and tested with cargo. To start using Pixi from a source build run:

cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/prefix-dev/pixi.git pixi

We don't publish to crates.io anymore, so you need to install it from the repository. The reason for this is that we depend on some unpublished crates which disallows us to publish to crates.io.

or when you want to make changes use:

cargo build
cargo test

If you have any issues building because of the dependency on rattler check out its compile steps.

Installer Script Options#

Linux & macOSWindows

The installation script has several options that can be manipulated through environment variables.

Variable	Description	Default Value
`PIXI_VERSION`	The version of Pixi getting installed, can be used to up- or down-grade.	`latest`
`PIXI_HOME`	The location of the pixi home folder containing global environments and configs.	`$HOME/.pixi`
`PIXI_BIN_DIR`	The location where the standalone pixi binary should be installed.	`$PIXI_HOME/bin`
`PIXI_ARCH`	The architecture the Pixi version was built for.	`uname -m`
`PIXI_NO_PATH_UPDATE`	If set the `$PATH` will not be updated to add `pixi` to it.
`PIXI_DOWNLOAD_URL`	Overrides the download URL for the Pixi binary (useful for mirrors or custom builds).	GitHub releases, e.g. linux-64
`NETRC`	Path to a custom `.netrc` file for authentication with private repositories.
`TMP_DIR`	The temporary directory the script uses to download to and unpack the binary from.	`/tmp`

For example, on Apple Silicon, you can force the installation of the x86 version:

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | PIXI_ARCH=x86_64 bash

Or set the version

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | PIXI_VERSION=v0.18.0 bash

To make a "drop-in" installation of pixi directly in the user $PATH:

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | PIXI_BIN_DIR=/usr/local/bin PIXI_NO_PATH_UPDATE=1 bash

Using `.netrc` for Authentication#

If you need to download Pixi from a private repository that requires authentication, you can use a .netrc file instead of hardcoding credentials in the PIXI_DOWNLOAD_URL.

The install script automatically uses .netrc for authentication with curl and wget. By default, it looks for ~/.netrc. You can specify a custom location using the NETRC environment variable:

# Use the default ~/.netrc file
curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | PIXI_DOWNLOAD_URL=https://private.example.com/pixi-latest.tar.gz bash

# Use a custom .netrc file
curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | NETRC=/path/to/custom/.netrc PIXI_DOWNLOAD_URL=https://private.example.com/pixi-latest.tar.gz bash

Your .netrc file should contain credentials in the following format:

machine private.example.com
login your-username
password your-token-or-password

Security Recommendation

Using .netrc is more secure than embedding credentials directly in the PIXI_DOWNLOAD_URL (e.g., https://user:pass@example.com/file), as it keeps credentials separate from the URL and prevents them from appearing in logs or process listings.

Security Note

The install script automatically masks any credentials embedded in the download URL when displaying messages, replacing them with ***:***@ to prevent credentials from appearing in logs or console output.

The installation script has several options that can be manipulated through environment variables.

Environment variable	Description	Default Value
`PIXI_VERSION`	The version of Pixi getting installed, can be used to up- or down-grade.	`latest`
`PIXI_HOME`	The location of the installation.	`$Env:USERPROFILE\.pixi`
`PIXI_NO_PATH_UPDATE`	If set, the `$PATH` will not be updated to add `pixi` to it.	`false`
`PIXI_DOWNLOAD_URL`	Overrides the download URL for the Pixi binary (useful for mirrors or custom builds).	GitHub releases, e.g. win-64

For example, set the version:

$env:PIXI_VERSION='v0.18.0'; powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iwr -useb https://pixi.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

Authentication for Private Repositories#

If you need to download Pixi from a private repository that requires authentication, you can embed credentials in the PIXI_DOWNLOAD_URL. The install script will automatically mask credentials in its output for security.

$env:PIXI_DOWNLOAD_URL='https://username:token@private.example.com/pixi-latest.zip'; powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iwr -useb https://pixi.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

Security Note

The PowerShell install script automatically masks any credentials embedded in the download URL when displaying messages, replacing them with ***:***@ to prevent credentials from appearing in logs or console output.

Autocompletion#

To get autocompletion follow the instructions for your shell. Afterwards, restart the shell or source the shell config file.

BashZshPowerShellFishNushellElvish

Add the following to the end of ~/.bashrc:

~/.bashrc

eval "$(pixi completion --shell bash)"

Add the following to the end of ~/.zshrc:

~/.zshrc

autoload -Uz compinit && compinit  # redundant with Oh My Zsh
eval "$(pixi completion --shell zsh)"

Add the following to the end of Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1. You can check the location of this file by querying the $PROFILE variable in PowerShell. Typically the path is ~\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 or ~/.config/powershell/Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 on -Nix.

(& pixi completion --shell powershell) | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

Add the following to the end of ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

~/.config/fish/config.fish

pixi completion --shell fish | source

Add the following to your Nushell config file (find it by running $nu.config-path in Nushell):

mkdir $"($nu.data-dir)/vendor/autoload"
pixi completion --shell nushell | save --force $"($nu.data-dir)/vendor/autoload/pixi-completions.nu"

Add the following to the end of ~/.elvish/rc.elv:

~/.elvish/rc.elv

eval (pixi completion --shell elvish | slurp)

Uninstall#

Before un-installation you might want to delete any previous files pixi has installed.

Remove any cached data:
```
pixi clean cache
```
Remove the environments from your pixi workspaces:
```
cd path/to/workspace && pixi clean
```
Remove the pixi and its global environments
```
rm -r ~/.pixi
```
Remove the pixi binary from your PATH:
- For Linux and macOS, remove ~/.pixi/bin from your PATH in your shell configuration file (e.g., ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc).
- For Windows, remove %UserProfile%\.pixi\bin from your PATH environment variable.