Install pkgx packages to /usr/local.

$ pkgm install node
# ^^ installs latest node to ~/.local. ie. you get ~/.local/bin/node
$ pkgm install node@20.1
# ^^ installs node^20.1 or switches out the installed node to 20.1
$ pkgm uninstall node
$ sudo pkgm install node
# ^^ installs node to /usr/local. ie. you get /usr/local/bin/node
$ pkgm shim node
# ^^ creates a shim for node at ~/.local/bin/node
# see the docs below for details about shims
$ pkgm list
# ^^ lists what’s installed
$ pkgm outdated
# ^^ lists outdated installations
$ pkgm update
# ^^ updates ~/.local packages to latest versions
$ sudo pkgm update
# ^^ updates /usr/local packages to latest versions

Shims

Shims are files with a single line, eg #!/usr/bin/env -S pkgx -q! node@22.

Thus using the shell to invoke the program via pkgx. You get all the benefits of an installed package—but only installed on-demand. Useful for self-healing setups, devops, containers and plenty more one-off or ephemeral tasks.

Shims are pretty great—but have caveats. Some software might be surprised that a package is not fully “installed” which can lead to unexpected errors. In practice we have seen issues only rarely and for more complex package combinations.

brew install pkgxdev/made/pkgm || curl https://pkgx.sh | sh

brew rm pkgm || sudo rm /usr/local/bin/pkgm

1. Packages are installed via pkgx to ~/.pkgx
2. We then sudo hard-link them to /usr/local/pkgs
3. We then symlink the hard-links to /usr/local

• Blazingly fast
• Install specific versions of any pkg
• You install by executable name—thus you don’t have to do a search first
• Installed packages can be installed as root
• dev-aware installations
• Optional self-healing shims