jdx/mise v2026.9.6

v2026.9.6: Project daemons, mise doctor project, and vfox backend tool discovery

on GitHub

This release adds experimental project daemons backed by pitchfork, a mise doctor project command for project-declared diagnostic checks, and tool discovery from vfox backend plugins in mise search. It also changes the HTTP backend's default install layout so uninstall and prune reclaim disk space, speeds up warm lockfile_mode = "generate" installs and repeated OCI builds, and fixes a batch of nushell, monorepo, lockfile, brew, and Windows bootstrap issues.

Highlights

• Services next to tools: [daemons] declares background processes and PostgreSQL/Redis presets in mise.toml, managed through mise daemons and optionally started when you enter the project. [doctor.checks.<name>] lets projects declare their own environment probes for mise doctor project.
• Discovery and output: mise search, shell completion, and interactive mise use now include tools published by installed vfox backend plugins, and settings.truncate / --no-truncate disable terminal-width truncation (automatically when a coding agent is detected).
• Storage and speed: HTTP tools now extract into their own install directory by default (opt back into deduplication with shared_extraction = true), warm generate-mode installs skip needless lockfile rewrites, and OCI builds share a local tool-layer cache.

Added

• daemons: New experimental [daemons] section and mise daemons command family (start, stop, restart, ls, status, logs, tui) manage project background processes with pitchfork. PostgreSQL and Redis presets install the database as a tool (participating in lockfiles), supply connection environment variables and readiness checks, and keep project data across stop/start. Daemons with auto = ["start", "stop"] start when entering the project from an activated Bash, Zsh, or Fish shell and are released when the last shell session leaves. Requires experimental = true and pitchfork 2.25.0 or later; database presets are Unix-only and PostgreSQL uses loopback trust authentication intended for local development. (#13085 by @jdx)

  [settings]
  experimental = true
  
  [daemons]
  postgres = "18"
  redis = "8"
  
  [daemons.web]
  run = "npm run dev"
  port = 3000
  auto = ["start", "stop"]

• doctor: mise doctor project runs checks declared in [doctor.checks.<name>] with the project's environment and installed tools, reporting PASS/FAIL/error/skipped per check in text or --json. Checks support description, hint, timeout (default 10s), dir, shell, and os selectors, run concurrently under the jobs limit, and exit nonzero when any check fails. Ordinary mise doctor does not run them, and hints are never executed. A follow-up aligned dir resolution with task conventions (config root for project configs including ~/mise.toml, ~/ expansion), fixed head-of-line blocking when one probe hangs, and kept nohup mise doctor project alive on SIGHUP. (#13062, #13089 by @jdx)

  [doctor.checks.openssl]
  description = "OpenSSL development files are discoverable"
  run = "pkg-config --exists openssl"
  hint = "Run `mise bootstrap packages apply` to install the declared build dependencies."
  timeout = "5s"
  os = ["linux", "macos"]

• vfox: Tools provided by installed vfox backend plugins now appear in mise search, shell completion, and interactive mise use, namespaced as <plugin>:<tool>. Plugins can implement BackendListTools for a finite catalog and/or BackendSearchTools for query-driven discovery in large ecosystems; a prefixed query like npm:eslint is routed only to that plugin. Results are cached, slow plugins fall back to stale cache, and existing plugins need no changes. mise registry remains registry-only. (#13111 by @jdx)

• cli: New settings.truncate (and MISE_TRUNCATE, default true) controls terminal-width shortening of table cells and task metadata. mise ls, mise config ls, and mise bootstrap dotfiles status gain --truncate / --no-truncate, and output is kept complete automatically when a known coding agent is detected. (#13112 by @jdx)

  mise bootstrap dotfiles status --no-truncate

• bootstrap: [bootstrap.macos.dock] gains apps, an ordered list of pinned application paths. Status compares identity and order (ignoring Dock-added metadata), apply adds, removes, and reorders application tiles while preserving other tiles and persistent-others, and an empty list removes all application tiles. Paths must be absolute or home-relative .app bundles. (#13075 by @azohra)

  [bootstrap.macos.dock]
  apps = [
    "/System/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app",
    "/Applications/Firefox.app",
  ]

• bootstrap: mise bootstrap packages where brew:<formula> prints an installed formula's stable opt root (for example /opt/homebrew/opt/unzip), so scripts can put keg-only executables on PATH without hardcoding the Homebrew prefix or Cellar version. Missing installs exit nonzero with empty stdout. (#13083 by @himkt)

• dotfiles: Destination variants can omit source when every variant sets a target; the entry key is then resolved as a relative path under settings.dotfiles.root instead of next to mise.toml. Parent traversal is rejected. (#13087 by @jdx)

  [dotfiles."vscode/settings.json"]
  mode = "copy"
  variants = [
    { os = "macos", target = "~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/settings.json" },
    { os = "linux", target = "~/.config/Code/User/settings.json" },
  ]

• fmt: mise fmt now sorts lists whose order has no meaning: redactions lexically, and task sources/outputs, task_templates sources/outputs, task_config.global_inputs, and input_groups by reach (@group: references, then globs, then literal paths). Lists containing ! exclusions, entries starting with template syntax, or comments are left untouched, and precedence-sensitive lists such as env_file, tools.*, includes, and depends are never sorted. (#13058 by @jrandolf)

• oci: mise oci build gains --no-cache to bypass the new local tool-layer cache; entries live under each tool's cache directory and are removed by mise cache clear TOOL. (#13056 by @jdx)

Changed

• http: New http: installations extract directly into their own install directory, so mise uninstall and mise prune now remove their files instead of leaving payloads in $MISE_DATA_DIR/http-tarballs/. Set shared_extraction = true on a tool to keep the previous deduplicated symlink layout. Existing symlinked installs keep working; mise install --force <tool> migrates one to independent files without disturbing other installs that share the content. Legacy http-tarballs entries are not reclaimed automatically. Shared raw and compressed binary caches now also include the executable filename in their key, so differently named tools no longer reuse the wrong filename. (#13059 by @jdx)
• oci: mise oci push --no-cache now bypasses both the remote registry cache and the local tool-layer cache. (#13056 by @jdx)
• registry: postgres, redis, and mongodb now prefer conda: backends, installing prebuilt conda-forge binaries in seconds instead of compiling through vfox; vfox and asdf remain as fallbacks. conda:redis-server covers Linux and macOS only. (#13061 by @jdx)

Performance

• lockfile: Warm mise install runs in lockfile_mode = "generate" skip scheduling work for tools whose artifact metadata is already reusable, and skip rebuilding, serializing, and staging the lockfile entirely when nothing was installed and the on-disk lock already matches (preserving comments in the file). Explicit mise lock, forced provenance verification, upgrades, and new platforms still regenerate. (#13101, #13103 by @jdx)
• oci: mise oci push --from BASE no longer downloads base layers when the base and target live in the same repository, and oci build, oci run, and oci push share a local cache of packaged tool layers keyed on file contents, so repeated builds with overlapping tools skip tar and gzip work. (#13055, #13056 by @jdx)

Fixed

• nushell: mise activate nu no longer throws env_variable_not_found on every prompt or cd when a variable to hide is absent from the current scope; hide-env is now wrapped in try, matching the no-op behavior of other shells. (#13071 by @i-api)
• task: Task-level tools are now auto-installed for tasks referenced from run entries, including names rendered at runtime, right before they execute; --skip-tools is honored and install failures are reported as task failures without blocking siblings. (#13086 by @jdx)
• config: [monorepo] settings are now merged across same-directory config layers (base plus mise.<env>.toml overlays): omitted fields are inherited, an overlay's config_roots replaces the base list, and monorepo_root = false in an overlay disables the root and its descendant trust. (#13084 by @jdx)
• lockfile: Runtime tool requests such as mise which hk --tool hk@latest now use the lockfile belonging to the config that effectively defines the tool, instead of merging project and global pins and reporting a false "multiple resolutions" ambiguity or selecting an overridden pin. mise which --tool warns when a lower-precedence config has a matching pin the effective config lacks. (#13042 by @nettlesh)
• lockfile: Complete lockfile generation for Packslip tools skips platforms with no published artifact while still writing supported targets, and a verified Packslip signer may now replace legacy github-attestations metadata on upgrade instead of being rejected as a provenance downgrade. (#13102, #13105 by @jdx)
• upgrade: mise upgrade now detects updates between letter-suffixed versions such as tmux 3.7b to 3.7c; sub-N aliases keep resolving numeric components as before. (#13119 by @jdx)
• brew: Formulae that are keg-only solely because macOS ships them (such as brew:zip and brew:unzip) are now linked into <prefix>/bin on Linux, matching Homebrew. Kegs installed by earlier mise versions stay unlinked until the next mise bootstrap packages upgrade or a reinstall. (#13108 by @lil-lon)
• brew-cask: Tap casks with preflight_steps or postflight_steps no longer fail during metadata extraction; declarative run steps are captured as structured steps and executed by mise, with support for must_succeed = false. (#13060 by @jdx)
• bootstrap: mise bootstrap remote on Windows now finds ssh.exe and tar.exe on PATH instead of failing with required command 'ssh' not found. (#13117 by @JamBalaya56562)
• bootstrap: macOS defaults status explains type mismatches, showing for example 2 (real; expected integer) instead of two identical-looking values marked differs. (#13096 by @jdx)
• dotfiles: mise bootstrap dotfiles track honors the global yes setting for confirmations, and warns when tracking a symlink whose resolved source is not itself tracked, suggesting the command to enroll it. (#13072 by @nettlesh, #13095 by @jdx)
• schema: The JSON schema now models Git directory manifest dotfile entries, restricting explicit modes to copy or symlink-each and rejecting combinations with inline content or file-edit fields. (#12741 by @risu729)
• asdf: mise asdf install and mise asdf reshim no longer re-enter the full CLI dispatch, avoiding stack overflows on small-stack Linux environments; asdf install now follows the same implicit config trust as mise install. Bash completions are regenerated for the updated usage-rs word-break handling. (#13114 by @jdx)

Registry

• Added mpv (conda:mpv, Linux and macOS) (#13049 by @i-api), agent-browser (aqua:vercel-labs/agent-browser) (#13088 by @3w36zj6), and himalaya (github:pimalaya/himalaya) (#13091 by @i-api).
• editorconfig-checker installs again after 4.0.1 renamed its assets and executable; the shorthand now uses the GitHub backend. (#13098 by @jdx)
• mc installs from MinIO's GitHub releases instead of the retired Aqua download URL that returned HTTP 410. (#13113 by @jdx)

Documentation

• The docs landing page gains interactive diagrams for project environment switching, bootstrap machine resources, tool configuration precedence, artifact cache execution, and tracked dotfile synchronization. (#13065, #13066, #13067, #13068, #13069 by @jdx)
• The task-running guide is reorganized around finding and running tasks, passing arguments, then controlling execution. (#13077 by @azohra)

New Contributors

• @lil-lon made their first contribution in #13108

Full Changelog: v2026.9.5...v2026.9.6

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