Aqua Backend

Aqua tools may be used natively in mise. aqua is the ideal backend to use for new tools since they don't require plugins, they work on windows, they offer security features in addition to checksums. aqua installs also show more progress bars, which is nice.

You do not need to separately install aqua. The aqua CLI is not used in mise at all. What is used is the aqua registry that gets compiled into the mise binary on release. Here's an example package entry: aqua:hashicorp/terraform. mise has a reimplementation of aqua that knows how to work with these files to install tools.

As of this writing, aqua is relatively new to mise and because a lot of tools are being converted from asdf to aqua, there may be some configuration in aqua tools that need to be tightened up. I put some common issues below and would strongly recommend contributing changes back to the aqua registry if you notice problems. The maintainer is super responsive and great to work with.

If all else fails, you can disable aqua entirely with MISE_DISABLE_BACKENDS=aqua.

Currently aqua tools don't support setting environment variables or doing more than simply downloading binaries though (and I'm not sure this functionality would ever get added), so some tools will likely always require plugins like asdf/vfox.

The code for this is inside the mise repository at ./src/backend/aqua.rs.

Usage

The following installs the latest version of ripgrep and sets it as the active version on PATH:

$ mise use -g aqua:BurntSushi/ripgrep
$ rg --version
ripgrep 14.1.1

The version will be set in ~/.config/mise/config.toml with the following format:

[tools]
"aqua:BurntSushi/ripgrep" = "latest"

Some tools will default to use aqua if they're specified in registry/ to use the aqua backend. To see these tools, run mise registry | grep aqua:.

Tool Options

symlink_bins

Some tools bundle extra executables that you may not want exposed on PATH. For example, aws-cli bundles Python, which can conflict with your intended Python version.

Setting symlink_bins = true creates a filtered .mise-bins directory and exposes only the binaries mise intends to expose for that Aqua package, instead of every discovered executable from the install.

[tools]
aws-cli = { version = "latest", symlink_bins = true }

When enabled:

• If the aqua registry defines a files field, only those binaries are exposed (e.g., aws and aws_completer for aws-cli)
• Otherwise, mise falls back to exposing the inferred primary binary for the package
• A .mise-bins subdirectory is created with symlinks to the exposed binaries
• Bundled dependencies and other extra executables, such as Python in aws-cli, are not added to PATH

vars

Some aqua registry entries define template variables (for example <span v-pre>{{.Vars.channel}}</span>). Set them via tool options using either top-level keys or a nested vars table:

[tools]
"aqua:flutter/flutter" = { version = "3.32.8", channel = "stable" }
"aqua:scenarigo/scenarigo" = { version = "0.21.0", vars = { go_version = "1.24" } }

Vars with defaults are filled automatically. Vars marked as required in the aqua registry must be set unless the registry also provides a default.

prerelease

By default, releases flagged prerelease: true on GitHub are excluded from mise ls-remote and from latest resolution. Set prerelease = true to include them:

[tools]
"aqua:owner/tool" = { version = "latest", prerelease = true }

When set, pre-release tags (e.g. v1.0.0-rc1, v0.1.2-dev.86) appear in mise ls-remote, latest resolves against the full list including pre-releases, and fuzzy version queries match pre-release tags. Has no effect when a package uses the github_tag version source (git tags don't carry a prerelease flag). Draft releases are always excluded. See the github backend docs for more detail.

Settings

Security Verification

Aqua backend supports multiple security verification methods to ensure the integrity and authenticity of downloaded tools. mise provides native Rust implementation for all verification methods, eliminating the need for external CLI tools like cosign, slsa-verifier, or gh.

GitHub Artifact Attestations

GitHub Artifact Attestations provide cryptographic proof that artifacts were built by specific GitHub Actions workflows. mise verifies these attestations natively to ensure the authenticity and integrity of downloaded tools.

Requirements:

• The tool must have github_artifact_attestations configuration in the aqua registry for attestations to be verified
• No external tools required - verification is handled natively by mise

Configuration:

# Enable/disable GitHub artifact attestations verification (default: true)
export MISE_AQUA_GITHUB_ATTESTATIONS=true

Registry Configuration Example:

packages:
  - type: github_release
    repo_owner: cli
    repo_name: cli
    github_artifact_attestations:
      signer_workflow: cli/cli/.github/workflows/deployment.yml

Cosign Verification

mise natively verifies Cosign signatures without requiring the cosign CLI tool to be installed.

Configuration:

# Enable/disable Cosign verification (default: true)
export MISE_AQUA_COSIGN=true

# Pass extra arguments to the verification process
export MISE_AQUA_COSIGN_EXTRA_ARGS="--key /path/to/key.pub"

SLSA Provenance Verification

mise natively verifies SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts) provenance without requiring the slsa-verifier CLI tool.

Configuration:

# Enable/disable SLSA verification (default: true)
export MISE_AQUA_SLSA=true

Other Security Methods

Aqua also supports:

• Minisign verification: Uses minisign for signature verification
• Checksum verification: Verifies SHA256/SHA512/SHA1/MD5 checksums (always enabled)

Verification Process

During tool installation, mise will:

1. Download the tool and any signature/attestation files
2. Perform native verification using the configured methods
3. Display verification status with progress indicators
4. Abort installation if any verification fails

Example output during installation:

✓ Downloaded cli/cli v2.50.0
✓ GitHub artifact attestations verified
✓ Tool installed successfully

Troubleshooting

If verification fails:

1. Check network connectivity: Verification requires downloading attestation data
2. Verify tool configuration: Ensure the aqua registry has correct verification settings
3. Disable specific verification: Temporarily disable problematic verification methods
4. Enable debug logging: Use MISE_DEBUG=1 to see detailed verification logs

Common issues:

• No attestations found: The tool may not have attestations configured in the registry
• Verification timeout: Network issues or slow attestation services
• Certificate validation: Clock skew or certificate chain issues

To disable all verification temporarily:

export MISE_AQUA_GITHUB_ATTESTATIONS=false
export MISE_AQUA_COSIGN=false
export MISE_AQUA_SLSA=false
export MISE_AQUA_MINISIGN=false

Common aqua issues

Here's some common issues I've seen when working with aqua tools.

Supported env missing

The aqua registry defines supported envs for each tool of the os/arch. I've noticed some of these are simply missing os/arch combos that are in fact supported—possibly because it was added after the registry was created for that tool.

The fix is simple, just edit the supported_envs section of registry.yaml for the tool in question.

Using version_filter instead of version_prefix

This is a weird one that causes weird issues in mise. In general in mise we like versions like 1.2.3 with no decoration like v1.2.3 or cli-v1.2.3. This consistency not only makes mise.toml cleaner but, it also helps make things like mise up function right because it's able to parse it as semver without dealing with a bunch of edge-cases.

Really if you notice aqua tools are giving you versions that aren't simple triplets, it's worth fixing.

One common thing I've seen is registries using a version_filter expression like Version startsWith "Version startsWith "atlascli/"".

This ultimately causes the version to be atlascli/1.2.3 which is not what we want. The fix is to use version_prefix instead of version_filter and just put the prefix in the version_prefix field. In this example, it would be atlascli/. mise will automatically strip this out and add it back in, which it can't do with version_filter.