v2026.8.2: Declarative System Bootstrap

This release turns mise bootstrap into a full declarative host-provisioning system: alongside packages, mise can now converge privileged files, Linux users and groups, systemd services, Docker Compose projects, and firewall rules — all with plan/apply/status workflows, secret handling, and the ability to run over SSH against remote hosts. It also makes Ruby's ruby.compile=false a strict precompiled-only mode and lands a batch of install and lockfile fixes.

Highlights

• mise bootstrap gains a Terraform-style declarative model. A new mise bootstrap plan previews changes with table or JSON output and detailed exit codes, and each resource type has its own apply/status commands that converge only when something actually differs.
• Bootstrap can now provision far more than tools and packages: privileged files and directories, Linux accounts, systemd services, Compose projects, and host firewall rules, with dependency ordering, fail-closed safety checks, and secret inputs sourced from environment variables (never stored in config).
• The same bootstrap project can be applied to remote machines over SSH via mise bootstrap remote, including automatic detection of the target's OS/arch/libc and signature-verified download of the matching mise binary.

Added

• bootstrap: declarative resource plans. mise bootstrap plan previews what bootstrap would change before applying, with table or --json output and optional --detailed-exitcode (0 = no changes, 2 = changes, 1 = error). Resources have stable identities, dependency graphs, and validation for duplicates, missing dependencies, and cycles. (#11669 by @jdx)
• bootstrap: manage privileged files and directories via [bootstrap.files] and [bootstrap.directories], with content (inline or from a source), ownership, mode, and explicit present/absent state. Writes are atomic, removal is opt-in (and requires recursive = true for non-empty directories), and privileged work runs through hidden helpers that never expose file content in argv or logs. (#11674 by @jdx)
• bootstrap: secret inputs for managed files. [bootstrap.secrets] references sensitive values through environment variables so nothing is stored in config, and managed files with template = true can render them via {{ secret(name="...") }}. mise bootstrap secrets status reports availability without revealing values, and --prompt-secrets prompts securely for anything missing. (#11680 by @jdx)
• bootstrap: manage Linux users and groups via [bootstrap.users] and [bootstrap.groups], with create/update/remove, supplementary groups, home handling, and explicit state = "absent". Accounts converge before the files that reference them, and UID/GID collisions fail closed. (#11681 by @jdx)
• bootstrap: manage Linux systemd services via [bootstrap.services] for running/stopped, enabled/disabled, and masked state. Managed files and directories can set notify to trigger reload, restart, or reload_or_restart handlers, but only after a real file change. (#11688 by @jdx)
• bootstrap: manage Docker Compose projects via [bootstrap.compose] for running, stopped, and absent states, with pull/build/recreate/wait policies, one-shot services, orphan/volume/image removal, and explicit dependencies. Convergence compares live container runtime and health to the rendered Compose model (Compose v2 only). (#11689 by @jdx)
• bootstrap: manage Linux host firewall rules via [bootstrap.linux.firewall] with nftables, firewalld, and UFW backends (backend = "auto"). Includes SSH-lockout protection (default-deny requires a covering allow rule or allow_lockout = true), drift detection, and preservation of undeclared rules unless exclusive is set. (#11694 by @jdx)
• bootstrap: run bootstrap over SSH with mise bootstrap remote, targeting a named [bootstrap.remote.hosts] inventory or ad-hoc user@host targets. mise archives and stages your project, provisions a compatible mise binary on the host, runs bootstrap with forwarded flags, and cleans up staging afterward. (#11690 by @jdx)
• bootstrap: remote provisioning now detects each target's OS, architecture, and Linux libc (glibc vs musl) and, when the local binary is not compatible, downloads the matching raw executable for the same release from GitHub with minisign-verified checksums. Custom or debug builds fail closed and require an explicit mise_bin, remote_mise, or bootstrap_command. (#11693 by @jdx)

Changed

• ruby: ruby.compile = false is now a strict precompiled-only mode, matching python.compile. Installs error with no precompiled ruby found instead of silently falling back to ruby-build, and version listings (mise ls-remote ruby, fuzzy resolution) are filtered to versions that actually have a precompiled binary for your platform. Previously false was a no-op after precompiled binaries became the default in 2026.8.0. Unset and compile = true are unchanged; Windows is unaffected. (#11710 by @jdx)
• task: workspace task inference is now opt-in per provider via task.auto_infer (e.g. task.auto_infer = ["node"]) instead of running whenever experimental features are enabled. Explicit mise tasks always take precedence over inferred package scripts on name and alias collisions. (#11706 by @jdx)

Fixed

• brew: :any_skip_relocation bottles no longer leave unresolved @@HOMEBREW_*@@ placeholders in scripts and config files. That tag now only skips binary linkage relocation while text placeholders are still replaced. (#11665 by @jdx)
• brew-cask: detect extensionless DMG downloads (such as Raycast) by their UDIF trailer instead of treating them as raw executables and failing to find the app bundle. (#11692 by @jacobbednarz)
• lock: mise lock --bump now errors instead of writing an incomplete lockfile when a version bump would drop platform coverage that the previous locked version had. Best-effort skips are retained for platforms a tool never supported. (#11664 by @jdx)
• pipx: release-age gating now uses PyPI's precise RFC3339 upload_time_iso_8601 timestamp instead of the timezone-naive upload_time, which previously made freshly released packages appear up to ~24h younger and over-gated them under minimum_release_age. (#11662 by @Guria)
• pacman: pacman -Q is now parsed under LC_ALL=C so missing-package detection works in non-English locales; previously [bootstrap.packages] could bail on a translated "was not found" message. (#11673 by @rarandeyo)
• sync: clear stale incomplete markers when an external link (from uv, nvm, pyenv, nodenv, or Homebrew) is confirmed healthy, so mise where no longer treats a working external version as incomplete after an interrupted install. (#11172 by @risu729)
• completions: an explicit -- no longer hijacks task argument completion after usage v5. mise run <task> -- <TAB> again offers the task's declared choices instead of falling back to filenames, while still forwarding extra arguments. (#11711 by @jdx)
• registry: shim auto-install uses new declared bins metadata to pick the correct provider before falling back to incidental executables, fixing cases where invoking the npm shim could run Node's bundled npm instead of the configured npm version. (#11666, #11671, #11676, #11677, #11678 by @jdx)

New Contributors

• @jacobbednarz made their first contribution in #11692
• @rarandeyo made their first contribution in #11673

Full Changelog: v2026.8.1...v2026.8.2

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