mise

mise (mise-en-place) is a CLI tool that can manage multiple language runtime versions on a per-project basis. It's like asdf but faster. It's also like gvm, nvm, rbenv, tfenv & pyenv (and more) all in one! (formerly called "rtx")

Setup

Install mise

brew install mise

Add mise to shell

echo 'eval "$(mise activate zsh)"' >> ~/.zshrc

Commands

Set local idiomatic version file

echo 3.11 > .python-version # Python example
echo 20.5.1 > .node-version # Node example

Install missing tools

Given missing tools specified in local version files (e.g. [WARN] Tool not installed: python@3.10)

mise install

Install missing plugin

If mise install is not working and you're not getting a warning (e.g. [WARN] Tool not installed: terraform@1.3.6) when there is an existing idiomatic version file (e.g. .terraform-version) you may need to install the corresponding plugin

mise plugins install terraform

Set current shell session version

Sets a tool version for the current shell session. Useful if you're doing something quick and don't want to set a global or local version.

mise shell node@lts

Set global version

If you're sure you want to have a specific version always available then you can set a global version

mise use -g node@lts
mise use -g python@3.10
mise use -g rust@latest

Concepts

Local version files

In order to automatically switch to the correct version of your runtime(s) when you're working on different projects it's useful to store the version number in a file in a project's directory.

Idiomatic version files

mise supports idiomatic version files (just like asdf). They're language-specific files like .node-version and .python-version. These are ideal for setting the runtime version of a project without forcing other developers to use a specific tool like mise/asdf.

They support aliases, which means you can have an .nvmrc file with lts/hydrogen and it will work in mise and nvm. Here are some of the supported legacy version files:

Plugin	Idiomatic Version Files
crystal	.crystal-version
elixir	.exenv-version
go	.go-version, go.mod
java	.java-version, .sdkmanrc
node	.nvmrc, .node-version
python	.python-version
ruby	.ruby-version, Gemfile
terraform	.terraform-version, .packer-version, main.tf
yarn	.yarnrc

.mise.toml

.mise.toml is the native version file that is more customisable but requires that project collaborators use mise.

.tool-versions

.tool-versions is the asdf version file that supports multiple tools in one file but requires that project collaborators use asdf or mise.