Getting Started

This page walks through your first install with zxcv. Assumes you've already installed zxcv.

Installing tools from .tool-versions

zxcv reads the standard asdf .tool-versions format. Drop a file like this in your project:

nodejs 20.11.0
python 3.11.5
ruby 3.2.0

Then:

zxcv install

Installing a single tool

zxcv install nodejs 20.11.0
zxcv install python latest
zxcv install golang latest:1.26

By default this also pins the version into your local .tool-versions. Use --no-save to install without pinning, or --global to write to $HOME/.tool-versions instead.

Discovering available tools and versions you can install

zxcv search node          # tools matching "node"
zxcv search nodejs latest # latest stable version of nodejs
zxcv search nodejs 20     # all nodejs versions starting with "20"

Running installed binaries

Once installed, the binaries are on your PATH. Just use them directly:

node --version
python --version

Tip

If you are confused on what all tools are resolved for your directory, run the zxcv current command.

To inspect which version our binary resolves to:

zxcv which node

To run a binary at a specific version without changing the active version:

zxcv exec nodejs 18.19.0 -- node script.js