Dev Environment Managers

Users recommend and compare tools like direnv, asdf, mise, and nix for automatically managing tool/language versions and environments per project directory, avoiding global installs and shell bloat.

➡️ Stable 0.5x DevOps & Infrastructure
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#6939
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Keywords

e.g PHP asdf.html CLI CI flake.nix IMO HN config.fish direnv.net nix rtx python tool env node terraform versions shell install

Sample Comments

zeec123 Feb 15, 2025 View on HN

nix and direnv might be worth a look.

ralgozino Jun 25, 2024 View on HN

I second mise, it's been a nice replacement for direnv, asdf and makefiles for my use case. Much faster, still compatible with the old configuration files when needed and all in one tool for the new projects. Awesome.

infamia Dec 15, 2024 View on HN

I'm in the middle of replacing all of my usage of direnv with mise [1]. It does everything direnv/asdf can (for my use cases) plus a lot more. Mise can install a lot of dev software/frameworks [2], run tasks, file watcher all in a compatible manner for *nix OSes. mise is ridiculously good and even minimizes my need for docker locally.[1] https://mise.jdx.dev/[2] <a href="https://mise.j

physPop Mar 13, 2024 View on HN

why not use nix shell and direnv?

rubyist5eva Apr 5, 2022 View on HN

asdf is wonderful, been using it for 2 years and get everyone I see using one of those single-language tools to switch and they also love it.if asdf could have a plugin that hooks into their shims to also handle direnv I would be in heavenedit: just did a quick google search and it exists, i'm elated

gizdan Dec 13, 2021 View on HN

Better yet, use asdf. It supports more than just node. I manage go, node, python, terraform, direnv, and many more with it.

nerdponx Dec 7, 2024 View on HN

Direnv is a great tool for this FWIW.

codethief May 29, 2025 View on HN

Came here to post this. I've used asdf/mise for years (and recently also Nix + direnv) and it works tremendously well.

js2 Apr 5, 2022 View on HN

> Everything was fine until I kinda felt my config.fish file got bloated and somehow nvm was kinda slowing down my shell startup.I'm quite happy with direnv to avoid this problem.https://direnv.net/Funny enough, it was submitted to HN most recently just yesterday:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id

Onavo Nov 12, 2025 View on HN

Try misehttps://mise.jdx.dev/dev-tools/comparison-to-asdf.html