tsuku
A modern, universal package manager for development tools.
Overview
tsuku is a package manager that makes it easy to install and manage development tools across different platforms. It uses action-based recipes to download, extract, and install tools to version-specific directories with automatic PATH management.
Features
- Action-based recipes: Composable actions for downloading, extracting, and installing tools
- Version management: Tools installed in version-specific directories
- Automatic PATH management: Shell integration for easy access
- Dependency management: Automatic installation and cleanup of tool dependencies
- Ecosystem integration: Full support for npm, cargo, go, pip, gem, nix, and cpan with lockfile-based reproducibility
- Tool shell integration: Recipes can register shell functions and completions — loaded automatically via
$TSUKU_HOME/env at shell startup
- No dependencies: Single binary, no system prerequisites
Installation
curl -fsSL https://get.tsuku.dev/now | bash
The installer downloads the latest release binary, verifies its checksum, and configures your shell. It also registers the command-not-found hook for your shell automatically so you get install hints when you type an unknown command.
Installer flags
| Flag | Description |
|---|
--no-modify-path | Skip adding tsuku to PATH in shell config files |
--no-hooks | Skip registering the command-not-found hook |
--no-telemetry | Opt out of anonymous usage statistics |
Pass flags by piping through bash:
# Don't modify PATH or register the hook
curl -fsSL https://get.tsuku.dev/now | bash -s -- --no-modify-path --no-hooks
Hook registration details: By default, the installer detects your shell from $SHELL and runs tsuku hook install --shell=<shell> for bash, zsh, or fish. If $SHELL is unset or points to an unsupported shell, the installer warns and skips hook registration without failing. Pass --no-hooks to skip this step intentionally — you can register the hook later with:
tsuku hook install
Usage
Install a tool
tsuku install kubectl
tsuku install terraform
tsuku install gh
List installed tools
tsuku list
List installed macOS applications
tsuku list --apps
Applications installed via cask recipes are stored in $TSUKU_HOME/apps/ and symlinked to ~/Applications for Launchpad and Spotlight integration.
Update a tool
tsuku update kubectl
Self-Update
tsuku keeps itself up to date automatically. During regular background update checks, it downloads and applies new versions of itself. On the next invocation after a successful update, you'll see a brief notice: "tsuku has been updated to vX.Y.Z".
To update manually:
tsuku self-update
Self-update is enabled by default. To disable it:
tsuku config set updates.self_update false
In CI environments (CI=true), self-update is suppressed automatically. You can also disable it per-invocation with TSUKU_NO_SELF_UPDATE=1.
Update Notifications
tsuku shows brief notifications on stderr when updates are relevant:
- Applied updates: When auto-apply is enabled, you'll see
Updated <tool> 1.2.0 -> 1.3.0 for each tool updated in the background.
- Failed updates: If a background update fails (and gets rolled back), tsuku tells you what happened and how to recover.
- Self-update results: After tsuku updates itself, the next invocation shows the new version.
- Available updates: When auto-apply is off, tsuku shows
N updates available. Run 'tsuku update' to apply. once per check cycle.
Notifications are suppressed automatically in these contexts:
| Condition | Rationale |
|---|
CI=true | CI pipelines shouldn't see update noise |
| Non-TTY stdout | Piped or scripted output stays clean |
--quiet / -q flag | User asked for silence |
TSUKU_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 | Explicit opt-out of all update behavior |
To force notifications in a suppressed environment (for example, a CI job that should auto-update):
TSUKU_AUTO_UPDATE=1 tsuku install kubectl
TSUKU_AUTO_UPDATE=1 overrides all suppression signals. See ENVIRONMENT.md for details.
Remove a tool
tsuku remove kubectl
Automatic Tool Discovery
tsuku automatically discovers where to find tools. Just run:
tsuku install <tool>
