Package managers are the foundation of every stack yet they haven’t evolved in decades—they still work the same way they always have.

• Why are they so slow? So clunky? So incapable?
• Why do you need to use a different one (with subtly different syntax) on every platform?
• Why is it that you can have any version (as long as its the latest) but you have to to wait weeks for it?

Introducing tea, the next-generation, cross-platform package manager from the creator of brew.

 

tea/cli 0.24.6

$ node --eval 'console.log("Hello World!")'
command not found: node

$ sh <(curl tea.xyz) --yes
installing ~/.tea…

$ node --eval 'console.log("Hello World!")'
tea: installing ~/.tea/nodejs.org/v19.5.0
Hello World!

With tea there is no install packages step. Just type the commands you need and tea takes care of the rest: fetching packages, constructing a virtual environment isolated from the rest of your system and then running your commands.

Change your thinking from “I want to install foo” to “I want to use foo”.

Check out # Magic to learn how this works.

Scripting’s been stuck in a dark age of Bash because it’s the only thing you can be sure is installed. Lame af right?

$ tea ./hello.go
installing go…
go: running hello.go
#…

$ tea https://examples.deno.land/color-logging.ts
tea: installing deno…
#…

# need more dependencies than the interpreter? tea reads YAML front matter
$ tea ./favicon-generator input.png
tea: installing image-magick, optipng, guetzli and 3 other packages…
# …
output: favicon-128.png…

$ cat favicon-generator
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
# ^^ tea reads the shebang and automatically installs ruby
#---
# dependencies:
#   imagemagick.org: 4
#   optipng.sourceforge.net: 1
#---

You’re a developer, you need specific versions of tools, not just whatever the package manager happens to have today.

$ node^16 --version
tea: installing node^16
v16.19.0

$ node~16.18 --version
tea: installing node~16.18
v16.18.1

# when you need even more control we support the full https://semver.org spec
# though you will need to invoke tea directly
$ tea +nodejs.org'>=15,<17' node --version
v16.19.0

In fact you can construct virtual environments of specific tools and versions encapsulated separately from the rest of your system.

$ tea +rust-lang.org^1.63 +python.org~3.11 sh
tea: this is a temporary shell containing rust-lang.org, python.org and 13 other packages
tea: type `exit` when done

tea $ rustc --version
rustc 1.65.0

tea $ python --version
Python 3.11.1

tea $ which rustc
~/.tea/rust-lang.org/v1.65.0/bin/rustc
# ^^ inside environments tools *are* in `PATH`

tea $ exit

$ which rustc
rustc not found
# remember: tea doesn’t install packages

And since typically different projects will need different versions, we support that too:

$ node --version
v19.3.0

$ jq '.tea += {
  "dependencies": {"nodejs.org": "^18.4"}
}' package.json | sponge package.json
# ^^ specify the version of the tool you need in *that tool’s config*.
# we strongly prefer YAML front matter in a comment
# but here we add an isolated `tea` namespace since JSON can’t have comments
# NOTE tea will automatically fetch both jq and sponge when you run the above

$ cat <<EOF >>my-project/README.md
# Dependencies
| Project    | Version |
| ---------- | ------- |
| nodejs.org | ^18.4   |
EOF
# ^^ optionally, tea can also parse your README

$ cd my-project
$ node --version
v18.13.0

$ cd ..
$ node --version
v19.3.0

Using existing files further cements the notion that using tea is completely optional for both you and your users.

They either use tea or they source the dependencies themselves.

Some files are indicators of what tools they need so if you choose to not use the README you’re saying you expect your users to know package.json means node, cargo.toml means rust and so on.

Which is why you may prefer to encode the data in the README since then it’s readable by both humans and tea.

 

Getting Started

tea is a standalone, cross-platform† binary. So if you wanted you could just cURL it:

$ curl -Lo tea https://tea.xyz/$(uname)/$(uname -m)
$ chmod u+x ./tea

$ echo '# tea *really is* a standalone binary' | ./tea --sync glow -
tea: installing charm.sh/glow
# `tea --sync` updates pkgs, but you have to call it *at least once*
# our installer does this for you normally

However, if you want tea’s shell magic, you’ll need our installer:

sh <(curl https://tea.xyz)
# • asks you to confirm before it sets up `~/.tea`
# • asks you to confirm before adding one line to your `~/.shellrc`
# • DOESN’T need `sudo` or the Xcode Command Line Tools

† we support macOS >= 11 and Linux (glibc >= 23) and WSL, Windows native is being built as we speak.

`preview.gif`

In fact, our one-liner abstracts away installing tea itself:

# will your node project work with bun.sh? find out without having to install it!
$ sh <(curl tea.xyz) bun run start

# if tea is installed, our one-liner uses the tea installation, if it’s not
# installed then it **doesn’t install tea** or any dependencies, it creates a
# sandbox and runs everything in there

Now in your blog posts, tweets and tutorials you don’t have to start with any “how to install tea” preamble nor will they need to google anything. If they want to learn about tea first they can go to the same URL as they’re curl’ing. We already work on Linux, macOS, and WSL; soon we’ll support Windows natively.

As a bonus the installer also updates tea.

“Now see here fella’, I *hate* installers…”

Package managers can’t install themselves (#cantfix). How via brew or Docker instead?

$ brew install teaxyz/pkgs/tea-cli

# or just try it out first
$ docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/teaxyz/infuser

Other ways to install tea

Take your pick:

• Grab the latest release with your browser. On macOS you’ll have to unquarantine the binary:

  # download from https://github.com/teaxyz/cli/releases first
  $ xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ./tea

• Or get a plain text listing of binary downloads:

  $ curl dist.tea.xyz   # pick your platform and `curl` it

• Or here’s a fancy one-liner:

  $ sudo install -m 755 <(curl --compressed -LSsf https://tea.xyz/$(uname)/$(uname -m)) /usr/local/bin/tea

GitHub Actions

- uses: teaxyz/setup@v0
# ^^ https://github.com/teaxyz/setup

Our action installs your deps and makes them (and tea) accessible to the rest of the workflow.

 

Developer Environments

Every project you work on needs different tools with different versions. Installing those tools globally makes no sense and could even cause subtle bugs during dev.

tea can determine the tools a project directory needs based on the files it finds. With our shell magic just step into the project directory and type commands; tea automatically fetches the specific versions those projects need and runs them.

We try to be as clever as possible, eg. we parse the node version out of a GitHub Action’s action.yml. If we see a .node-version file, we add that version of node to the environment. We want to support everything that makes sense (your PRs are very welcome!)

Where there isn’t a convention for specifying tool versions you can add YAML front matter to that tool’s configuration file. For example, if we’re talking a python poetry project then you can specify your python version by adding YAML front matter to its pyproject.toml:

$ cat <<EoYAML >> pyproject.toml
# ---
# dependencies:
#   python.org: ^3.11.3
# ---
EoYAML

If your poetry project needs other non pypa dependencies, like a c compiler, then you can add them there too (eg. llvm.org, our deps are always named after project homepages because then you just google it and there’s no ambiguity).

If you prefer we also support extracting your deps from a markdown table under a # Dependencies section in your README.md:

$ cat <<EOF >>my-project/README.md
# Dependencies
| Project    | Version |
| ---------- | ------- |
| go.dev     | ^1      |
EOF

Using your README is kinda neat; it makes this data both machine and human readable.

PSA: Stop using Docker

Docker is great for deployment and cross compilation, but… let’s face it: it sucks for dev.

Docker stifles builders. It constricts you; you’re immalleable; tech marches onwards but your docker container remains immobile. Nobody knows how to use docker. Once that Dockerfile is set up, nobody dares touch it.

And let’s face it, getting your personal dev and debug tools working inside that image is incredibly frustrating. Why limit your potential?

Keep deploying with Docker, but use tea to develop.

Then when you do deploy you may as well install those deps with tea.

Frankly, tea is properly versioned unlike system packagers, so with tea your deployments actually remain more stable.

Caveats

We still need to do a bit of work here. We don’t install any packages when you step into a directory as that would violate the principle of least surprise. But this may mean the full environment doesn’t work initially. You can fix this with a tea -SE && cd .. We’re working on improving this.

I added YAML front matter and it doesn’t work, what now?

• After changing any files you need to do a cd . to reload the environment.
• While debugging you can do tea -E to see if we’re picking up your changes.
• If it still doesn’t work open a ticket. This is either a bug or we don’t support your toolset yet.

Supplementing the Environment

There are all sorts of variables a developer needs when working on a project and tea aims to make them available to you. Thus we provide SRCROOT and VERSION‡ in addition to everything else required to make your devenv function. To see the full environment for your project run tea -En or simply env.

‡ extracted from the README.md or VERSION files.

 

Magic

Our magic puts the entire open source ecosystem at your fingertips. Our installer enables it by adding some hooks to your shell:

• A hook when changing directory that sets up project environments
  • Environments are just shell environment variables
• A hook for the “command not found” scenario that installs that command before running it †

Magic is entirely optional, tea is still entirely usable without it.
Generally we’d say our magic is for devs and not for ops.

† Our “command not found” magic only works at a terminal prompt. Thus eg. VSCode won’t magically find deno. Shell scripts won’t automatically install tools they try to run. This is intentional. Magic should not lead to anarchy. See our FAQ for more information.

$ which bun
bun not found

$ tea --dry-run bun --version
imagined: bun.sh^0.4
~/.tea/bun.sh/v0.4.0/bin/bun --version

$ bun --version
tea: installing bun.sh^0.4
0.4.0

$ which bun
bun not found
# `bun` is not in your `PATH`
# ∵ tea doesn’t install packages
# ∴ using tea doesn’t compromise your system’s integrity

$ tea bun --version
0.4.0
# ^^ the same as `bun --version` but without magic

Using tea Without Magic

Simply prefix everything with tea, eg. tea npm start.

Using Developer Environments Without Magic

Simply prefix commands with tea -E, eg. tea -E npm start.

Uninstalling tea’s Shell Magic

Our installer asked if you wanted magic when you ran it. If you elected to install magic and no longer want it simply remove the one-liner from your shell’s configuration file.

Using Magic in Shell Scripts

Our magic is not automatically added to scripts, but you can manually add it:

source <(tea --magic=bash)
                   # ^^ you have to specify which shell tho

And of course you can also use our one-liner:

source <(curl tea.xyz | sh -s -- --magic=bash)

Thus you can make a script that can effortlessly use any tool from the open source ecosystem. If they have tea installed it uses their installation, if not it installs everything (including tea itself) to a temporary sandbox that’s gone when the script completes.

Injecting Packages without Using Magic

Our +pkg syntax injects packages into an environment, the commands are then run in that environment.

# a script that needs `convert`
$ tea +imagemagick.org my-script.sh

# a VHS script that needs `wget`
$ tea +gnu.org/wget vhs demo.tape

# if tea doesn’t provide the package it passes the args through to your system
$ tea +neovim.io which nvim
~/.tea/neovim.io/v0.8.2/bin/nvim

# in fact, `tea` is like an “env++”: just like `env` our purpose is to
# construct environments. Our `++` is: we also fetch packages. Thus, if you
# don’t specify what we should do with the environment, we dump it:
$ tea +zlib.net
MANPATH=/Users/mxl/.tea/zlib.net/v1.2.13/share/man:/usr/share/man
PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/Users/mxl/.tea/zlib.net/v1.2.13/lib/pkgconfig
LIBRARY_PATH=/Users/mxl/.tea/zlib.net/v1.2.13/lib
CPATH=/Users/mxl/.tea/zlib.net/v1.2.13/include
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/Users/mxl/.tea/zlib.net/v1.2.13/share

Contributing New Magic

Is there a file that we should know about? Is there some other magic we should inject in certain circumstances? Open a ticket.

Packagers Who Care

You trust us to just work and make your workflows happen. We take this job seriously and we go the extra mile on a per package basis eg. our git ignores .DS_Store files by default and our RubyGems defaults to user-installs and ensures gems are in PATH. Also we insist our packages are relocatable, which is why we can install in your home directory, but this also means you could pick up the whole ~/.tea directory and bundle it with your app. We also begin packaging new releases almost immediately as soon as they go live using various automations.

Contributing

If you have suggestions or ideas, start a discussion. If we agree we’ll move it to an issue. Bug fixes straight to pull request or issue please!

Probably the place you’ll want to start is by supplementing the pantry.

Hacking on tea

tea is written in TypeScript using deno.

git clone https://github.com/teaxyz/cli tea
cd tea

deno task run foo   # runs the local checkout passing `foo` as an argument
deno task install   # deploys the local checkout into your `~/.tea`

Contributing Packages

There’s hundreds of thousands of open source projects and we need your help supporting them! Check out the docs for the pantry to learn more.

 

 

Appendix

FAQ

How do I update?

$ tea --sync
# ^^ updates the pantries, and any packages in the virtual-environment

$ tea --sync +deno.land
# ^^ updates specific packages

$ sh <(curl tea.xyz) --sync
# ^^ updates `tea` as well

How do I view what is stowed?

open $(tea --prefix)

We agree this is not great UX.

I need a tool in PATH (aka brew install)

Symlinks† to tea automatically invoke their namesake:

$ ln -s $(which tea) /usr/local/bin/bun
$ bun --version
tea: installing bun…
bun 0.4.0

# you can version tools this way too
$ ln -s $(which tea) /usr/local/bin/bun~0.3
$ bun~0.3 --version
tea: installing bun=0.3.0
bun 0.3.0

# if you prefer you can symlink with a `tea+` or `tea_` prefix
$ ln -s $(which tea) /usr/local/bin/tea+node
$ tea+node --version
v19.3.0

† this doesn’t work on Linux, you’ll need to use hard-links. this is a platform limitation we cannot work around 😞

How do I use tea with editors like VSCode?

We intend to make a VSCode extension that automatically fetches the environment for the active workspace. In the meantime add tools to your PATH as described in the above FAQ.

What are these ^, ~, etc. symbols?

tea adheres to semantic versioning.

How do I find available packages?

We list all packages at tea.xyz. Or open ~/.tea/tea.xyz/var/pantry. We agree this is not great UX.

Will you support platform foo?

We want to support all platforms. Start a discussion and let’s talk about how to move forward with that.

What happened to executable markdown?

We may revisit executable markdown, but we realized that since tea makes it so trivial to use anything from the open source ecosystem, it makes it trivial for you as a developer to use xc†, make or just or any of the myriad of other tools that are tightly scoped to the initial goals of executable markdown.

† xc actually is a more mature implementation of executable markdown and we think you should definitely check it out.

How do I uninstall tea?

Delete everything under ~/.tea. Job done.

Well. Strictly there’s an (automatically deactivated) one-liner in your shell’s configuration file you may want to remove (eg ~/.zshrc).

I have another question

We have further FAQs in our wiki. Failing that Start a discussion and we’ll get back to you.

 

Philosophy

• Be non‑intrusive

  don’t interfere with our users’ systems or habits

• Be “just works”

  our users have better things to do than fix us

• Error messages must be excellent

  trust that if it comes to it, our users can fix things provided we give them a helping hand

• Be intuitive

  being clever is good—but don’t be so clever nobody gets it

• Resist complexity

  rethink the problem until a simpler solution emerges

• Be fast

  we are in the way of our users’ real work, don’t make them wait

Troubleshooting

env: tea: No such file or directory

If you got this error message, you need to install tea: sh <(curl -Ssf https://tea.xyz).

Changing directory takes a long time sometimes

This is a bug, though it can be insidious to fix. Please report it. Changing directories should not slow down significantly due to tea’s magic.