pixi shell

Start an interactive shell in a pixi environment

Start an interactive shell in a pixi environment. Run exit to leave the shell.

Usage

pixi shell [OPTIONS]

Alias: pixi s

Options

--manifest-path · path

The path to the pixi.toml or pyproject.toml file.

--frozen · boolean

Install the environment as defined in the lockfile, without updating it.

--locked · boolean

Check if the lockfile is up-to-date before installing the environment. Errors if the lockfile is out-of-date.

--environment · string

The environment to activate in the shell.

--no-install · boolean

Don’t install the environment, only activate it.

--change-ps1 · boolean · default: "true"

Change the prompt to indicate the pixi environment (can be configured in the global config).

Examples

Start a shell in the default environment

pixi shell

Start a shell in a specific environment

pixi shell --environment production

Start a shell without updating the environment

pixi shell --frozen

Supported Shells

Pixi automatically detects and supports the following shells:

Unix/Linux/macOS

• Bash - Default on most Linux systems
• Zsh - Default on macOS
• Fish
• Xonsh
• Nushell

Windows

• PowerShell - Default
• Cmd.exe
• Bash (Git Bash, WSL)
• Nushell

Pixi will use the shell from which it was invoked, or fall back to the system default shell.

Shell Prompt

By default, pixi modifies your shell prompt to indicate you’re in a pixi environment:

(myproject:default) user@machine ~/myproject $

You can disable this behavior:

• Globally: Configure change-ps1 = false in your pixi configuration
• Per command: Currently not configurable per-command, but you can use pixi shell-hook for custom integrations

Shell Completions

If configured (source-completion-scripts = true in config), pixi will automatically source shell completions from the activated environment for supported shells.

Interactive Workflow

# Initialize a project
pixi init myproject
cd myproject

# Add dependencies
pixi add python cowpy

# Start a shell
pixi shell

# Now you're in the activated environment
cowpy "Thanks for using pixi"
python --version

# Exit the shell
exit

You can use pixi s as a shorthand for pixi shell.

Environment Activation

When you start a shell:

1. Pixi checks if the lockfile is up-to-date (unless --frozen is used)
2. Installs the environment if needed (unless --no-install is used)
3. Activates the environment with all necessary environment variables
4. Starts an interactive shell
5. Modifies the prompt (unless disabled)

Differences from pixi run

• pixi shell starts an interactive shell session
• pixi run executes a single command and exits
• Both activate the same environment with the same variables

Using with Different Shells

Pixi adapts to your shell automatically:

# Will use bash if that's your current shell
bash
pixi shell

# Will use zsh if that's your current shell
zsh
pixi shell

# Will use fish if that's your current shell
fish
pixi shell