Installation

Install Pixi on Linux, macOS, or Windows

Installing Pixi

Pixi is a single executable that can be installed on macOS, Linux, and Windows. The provided installation scripts will automatically download the latest version, extract it, and add it to your PATH.

Quick Install

Linux & macOS

Install Pixi with a single command:

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | sh

If your system doesn’t have curl, you can use wget:

wget -qO- https://pixi.sh/install.sh | sh

The script will download Pixi to ~/.pixi/bin and update your PATH in ~/.bashrc. You may need to restart your terminal or source your shell configuration.

macOS with Zsh

Starting with macOS Catalina, zsh is the default shell. Use:

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | zsh

The script will update your ~/.zshrc to include ~/.pixi/bin in your PATH.

Windows

PowerShell Install

Open PowerShell (you may need to run as administrator) and run:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm -useb https://pixi.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

Changing the execution policy allows running a script from the internet. You can check the script first:

powershell -c "irm -useb https://pixi.sh/install.ps1 | more"

Windows Installer (MSI)

Download the MSI installer from the GitHub releases page.

The installer will add Pixi to your PATH automatically.

Restart your terminal! After installation, restart your terminal or source your shell configuration to make pixi available.

Alternative Installation Methods

Homebrew (macOS & Linux)

brew install pixi

Winget (Windows)

winget install prefix-dev.pixi

Scoop (Windows)

scoop install main/pixi

Install from Source

Pixi is 100% written in Rust and can be installed using Cargo:

cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/prefix-dev/pixi.git pixi

Pixi is not published to crates.io because it depends on some unpublished crates. You must install directly from the GitHub repository.

Linux Distribution Packages

Arch Linux

Install from the extra repository using pacman:

pacman -S pixi

Alpine Linux

Pixi is available for Alpine Edge. Enable the testing repository first:

apk add pixi

Shell Autocompletion

After installing Pixi, enable autocompletion for your shell to improve the CLI experience.

Bash

Add to ~/.bashrc:

eval "$(pixi completion --shell bash)"

Zsh

Add to ~/.zshrc:

eval "$(pixi completion --shell zsh)"

Fish

Add to ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

pixi completion --shell fish | source

PowerShell

Add to your PowerShell profile (query $PROFILE to find the location):

(& pixi completion --shell powershell) | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

Typical path: ~\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

Nushell

Run these commands (find your config with $nu.config-path):

mkdir $"($nu.data-dir)/vendor/autoload"
pixi completion --shell nushell | save --force $"($nu.data-dir)/vendor/autoload/pixi-completions.nu"

Elvish

Add to ~/.elvish/rc.elv:

eval (pixi completion --shell elvish | slurp)

After adding autocompletion, restart your shell or source the configuration file for changes to take effect.

Installation Script Options

You can customize the installation using environment variables:

Linux & macOS Options

Variable	Description	Default
PIXI_VERSION	The version of Pixi to install	latest
PIXI_HOME	Location of the Pixi home folder	$HOME/.pixi
PIXI_BIN_DIR	Location where the binary is installed	$PIXI_HOME/bin
PIXI_ARCH	Architecture the version was built for	uname -m
PIXI_NO_PATH_UPDATE	If set, PATH will not be updated	-
PIXI_DOWNLOAD_URL	Override download URL for mirrors	GitHub releases

Examples

Install a specific version:

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | PIXI_VERSION=v0.18.0 bash

Force x86_64 on Apple Silicon:

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | PIXI_ARCH=x86_64 bash

Drop-in installation to system PATH:

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | PIXI_BIN_DIR=/usr/local/bin PIXI_NO_PATH_UPDATE=1 bash

Windows Options

Variable	Description	Default
PIXI_VERSION	The version of Pixi to install	latest
PIXI_HOME	Location of the installation	$Env:USERPROFILE\.pixi
PIXI_NO_PATH_UPDATE	If set, PATH will not be updated	false
PIXI_DOWNLOAD_URL	Override download URL	GitHub releases

Example

Install a specific version:

$env:PIXI_VERSION='v0.18.0'; powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iwr -useb https://pixi.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

Updating Pixi

Update to the latest version:

pixi self-update

Update to a specific version:

pixi self-update --version 0.18.0

If you installed Pixi using a package manager (brew, conda, paru, etc.), use that package manager’s update mechanism instead. For example: brew upgrade pixi

Verify Installation

Check that Pixi is installed correctly:

pixi --version

You should see output like:

pixi 0.59.0

Uninstalling Pixi

Before uninstalling, you may want to clean up Pixi-managed data:

1. Clean cache

   pixi clean cache
   
2. Remove workspace environments

   Navigate to your workspace and run:

   pixi clean
   
3. Remove Pixi directory

   Linux & macOS:

   rm -rf ~/.pixi
   

   Windows:

   Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $Env:USERPROFILE\.pixi
   
4. Remove from PATH

   Remove ~/.pixi/bin (or %UserProfile%\.pixi\bin on Windows) from your shell configuration file.

Troubleshooting

Command not found after installation

If you get “command not found” after installation:

1. Restart your terminal
2. Or source your shell configuration:
   • Bash: source ~/.bashrc
   • Zsh: source ~/.zshrc
3. Verify ~/.pixi/bin is in your PATH:
   echo $PATH
   

Permission denied on Linux/macOS

If you get permission errors:

chmod +x ~/.pixi/bin/pixi

Next Steps

Quick Start

Create your first Pixi workspace

Basic Usage

Learn essential Pixi commands