GitHub Backend

You may install GitHub release assets directly using the github backend. This backend downloads release assets from GitHub repositories and is ideal for tools that distribute pre-built binaries through GitHub releases.

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

Usage

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

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

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

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

Tool Options

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

Asset Autodetection

When no asset_pattern is specified, mise automatically selects the best asset for your platform. The system scores assets based on:

• OS compatibility (linux, macos, windows)
• Architecture compatibility (x64, arm64, x86, arm)
• Libc variant (gnu or musl, for Linux)
• Archive format preference (tar.gz, zip, etc.)
• Build type (avoids debug/test builds)

For most tools, you can simply install without specifying patterns:

mise install github:user/repo

TIP

The autodetection logic is implemented in src/backend/asset_detector.rs, which is shared by both the GitHub and GitLab backends.

asset_pattern

Specifies the pattern to match against release asset names. This is useful when there are multiple assets for your OS/arch combination or when you need to override autodetection.

[tools]
"github:cli/cli" = { version = "latest", asset_pattern = "gh_*_linux_x64.tar.gz" }

version_prefix

Specifies a custom version prefix for release tags. By default, mise handles the common v prefix (e.g., v1.0.0), but some repositories use different prefixes like release-, version-, or no prefix at all.

When version_prefix is configured, mise will:

• Strip the prefix when listing available versions
• Add the prefix when searching for releases
• Try both prefixed and non-prefixed versions during installation

[tools]
"github:user/repo" = { version = "latest", version_prefix = "release-" }

Examples:

• With version_prefix = "release-":
  • User specifies 1.0.0 → mise searches for release-1.0.0 tag
  • Available versions show as 1.0.0 (prefix stripped)
• With version_prefix = "" (empty string):
  • User specifies 1.0.0 → mise searches for 1.0.0 tag (no prefix)
  • Useful for repositories that don't use any prefix

Platform-specific Asset Patterns

For different asset patterns per platform:

[tools."github:cli/cli"]
version = "latest"

[tools."github:cli/cli".platforms]
linux-x64 = { asset_pattern = "gh_*_linux_x64.tar.gz" }
macos-arm64 = { asset_pattern = "gh_*_macOS_arm64.tar.gz" }

checksum

Verify the downloaded file with a checksum:

[tools."github:owner/repo"]
version = "1.0.0"
asset_pattern = "tool-1.0.0-x64.tar.gz"
checksum = "sha256:a1b2c3d4e5f6789..."

Instead of specifying the checksum here, you can use mise.lock to manage checksums.

Platform-specific Checksums

[tools."github:cli/cli"]
version = "latest"

[tools."github:cli/cli".platforms]
linux-x64 = { asset_pattern = "gh_*_linux_x64.tar.gz", checksum = "sha256:a1b2c3d4e5f6789..." }
macos-arm64 = { asset_pattern = "gh_*_macOS_arm64.tar.gz", checksum = "sha256:b2c3d4e5f6789..." }

size

Verify the downloaded asset size:

[tools]
"github:cli/cli" = { version = "latest", size = "12345678" }

strip_components

Number of directory components to strip when extracting archives:

[tools]
"github:cli/cli" = { version = "latest", strip_components = 1 }

INFO

If strip_components is not explicitly set, mise will automatically detect when to apply strip_components = 1. This happens when the extracted archive contains exactly one directory at the root level and no files. This is common with tools like ripgrep that package their binaries in a versioned directory (e.g., ripgrep-14.1.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/rg). The auto-detection ensures the binary is placed directly in the install path where mise expects it.

bin_path

Specify the directory containing binaries within the extracted archive, or where to place the downloaded file. This supports templating with {name}, {version}, {os}, {arch}, and {ext}:

[tools."github:cli/cli"]
version = "latest"
bin_path = "{name}-{version}/bin" # expands to cli-1.0.0/bin

Binary path lookup order:

1. If bin_path is specified, use that directory
2. If bin_path is not set, look for a bin/ directory in the install path
3. If no bin/ directory exists, search subdirectories for bin/ directories
4. If no bin/ directories are found, use the root of the extracted directory

api_url

For GitHub Enterprise or self-hosted GitHub instances, specify the API URL:

[tools]
"github:myorg/mytool" = { version = "latest", api_url = "https://github.mycompany.com/api/v3" }

Self-hosted GitHub

If you are using a self-hosted GitHub instance, set the api_url tool option and optionally the MISE_GITHUB_ENTERPRISE_TOKEN environment variable for authentication:

export MISE_GITHUB_ENTERPRISE_TOKEN="your-token"

Supported GitHub Syntax

• GitHub shorthand for latest release version: github:cli/cli
• GitHub shorthand for specific release version: github:cli/[email protected]

Settings

No settings available.