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SPM Backend

docs/dev-tools/backends/spm.md

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SPM Backend <Badge type="warning" text="experimental" />

You may install executables managed by Swift Package Manager directly from GitHub or GitLab releases.

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

When a release publishes a SwiftPM artifact bundle (*.artifactbundle.zip), mise will use the prebuilt executable from the bundle when it matches the current Swift target triple. If no matching bundle is available, mise falls back to building the package from source unless artifact bundles are explicitly required.

Dependencies

This relies on having swift installed. You can either install it manually or with mise.

[!NOTE] If you have Xcode installed and selected in your system via xcode-select, Swift is already available through the toolchain embedded in the Xcode installation.

Usage

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

sh
$ mise use -g spm:tuist/tuist
$ tuist --help
OVERVIEW: Generate, build and test your Xcode projects.

USAGE: tuist <subcommand>
...

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

toml
[tools]
"spm:tuist/tuist" = "latest"

If the release provides only a SwiftPM artifact bundle, mise can install the bundle directly:

sh
mise use -g spm:giginet/[email protected]
swift-testing-revolutionary --help

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

toml
[tools]
"spm:giginet/swift-testing-revolutionary" = "0.4.0"

Supported Syntax

DescriptionUsage
GitHub shorthand for latest release versionspm:tuist/tuist
GitHub shorthand for specific release versionspm:tuist/[email protected]
GitHub url for latest release versionspm:https://github.com/tuist/tuist.git
GitHub url for specific release versionspm:https://github.com/tuist/[email protected]

Other syntax may work but is unsupported and untested.

Tool Options

The following tool-options are available for the backend — these go in [tools] in mise.toml.

provider

Set the provider type to use for fetching assets and release information. Either github or gitlab (default is github). Ensure the provider is set to the correct type if you use shorthand notation and api_url for self-hosted repositories as the type probably cannot be derived correctly from the URL.

toml
[tools]
"spm:patricklorran/ios-settings" = { version = "latest", provider = "gitlab" }

api_url

Set the URL for the provider's API. This is useful when using a self-hosted instance.

toml
[tools]
"spm:acme/my-tool" = { version = "latest", provider = "gitlab", api_url = "https://gitlab.acme.com/api/v4" }

artifactbundle

Control whether SwiftPM artifact bundles are used. When unset, mise tries a matching *.artifactbundle.zip release asset first and falls back to building from source if no matching bundle is available.

Set artifactbundle = true to require an artifact bundle for a tool. If no bundle matches the current Swift target triple, installation fails instead of falling back to a source build.

Set artifactbundle = false to skip artifact bundles and always build from source.

toml
[tools]
"spm:giginet/swift-testing-revolutionary" = { version = "0.4.0", artifactbundle = true }
"spm:tuist/tuist" = { version = "latest", artifactbundle = false }

artifactbundle_asset

Select a specific artifact bundle release asset. This is required when a release contains multiple *.artifactbundle.zip assets.

toml
[tools]
"spm:giginet/swift-testing-revolutionary" = { version = "0.4.0", artifactbundle_asset = "swift-testing-revolutionary.artifactbundle.zip" }

filter_bins

Restrict which executable products are installed from the package or artifact bundle. When unset, every executable product declared in Package.swift is built and symlinked into bin/, or every matching executable artifact from an artifact bundle is symlinked into bin/.

Useful when a package ships helper executables (e.g. test harnesses) that you don't want on your PATH. For source builds, filtering happens before swift build, so unwanted products are never built.

Accepts a TOML array or a comma-separated string. If any listed name does not match an executable product in the package, installation fails with a clear error.

toml
[tools]
"spm:swiftlang/swiftly" = { version = "latest", filter_bins = ["swiftly"] }
# or
"spm:swiftlang/swiftly" = { version = "latest", filter_bins = "swiftly" }

Settings

spm.artifactbundle_only

Set spm.artifactbundle_only = true to require SwiftPM artifact bundles for all spm: installs. This mirrors cargo.binstall_only: mise will fail if no matching artifact bundle is available instead of compiling from source.

toml
[settings]
spm.artifactbundle_only = true

This can also be set with MISE_SPM_ARTIFACTBUNDLE_ONLY=1.