pipx Backend

pipx is a tool for running Python CLIs in isolated virtualenvs. This is necessary for Python CLIs because it prevents conflicting dependencies between CLIs or between a CLI and Python projects. In essence, this backend lets you add Python CLIs to mise.

To be clear, pipx is not pip and it's not used to manage Python dependencies generally. mise is a tool manager, not a dependency manager like pip, uv, or poetry. You can, however, use mise to install said package managers. You'd want to use the pipx backend to install a CLI like "black", not a library like "NumPy" or "requests".

Somewhat confusingly, the pipx backend will actually default to using uvx (the equivalent of pipx for uv) if uv is installed. This should just mean that it installs much faster, but see below to disable or configure since occasionally tools don't work with uvx.

The pipx backend supports the following sources:

• PyPI
• Git
• GitHub
• Http

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

Dependencies

This relies on having pipx installed. You can install it with or without mise. Here is how to install pipx with mise:

mise use -g python
pip install --user pipx

Other installation instructions can be found here

Usage

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

$ mise use -g pipx:psf/black
$ black --version
black, 24.3.0

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

[tools]
"pipx:psf/black" = "latest"

Python upgrades

If the python version used by a pipx package changes, (by mise or system python), you may need to reinstall the package. This can be done with:

mise install -f pipx:psf/black

Or you can reinstall all pipx packages with:

mise install -f "pipx:*"

mise should do this automatically when using mise up python.

Supported Pipx Syntax

Description	Usage
PyPI shorthand latest version	pipx:black
PyPI shorthand for specific version	pipx:[email protected]
GitHub shorthand for latest version	pipx:psf/black
GitHub shorthand for specific version	pipx:psf/[email protected]
Git syntax for latest version	pipx:git+https://github.com/psf/black.git
Git syntax for a branch	pipx:git+https://github.com/psf/black.git@main
Https with zipfile	pipx:https://github.com/psf/black/archive/18.9b0.zip

Other syntax may work but is unsupported and untested.

Settings

Set these with mise settings set [VARIABLE] [VALUE] or by setting the environment variable listed.

pipx.uvx

• Type: Bool
• Env: MISE_PIPX_UVX
• Default: true

If true, mise will use uvx instead of pipx if uv is installed and on PATH. This makes installing CLIs much faster by using uv as the package manager.

You can install it with mise:

mise use -g uv

Tool Options

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

extras

Install additional components.

[tools]
"pipx:harlequin" = { version = "latest", extras = "postgres,s3" }

pipx_args

Additional arguments to pass to pipx when installing the package.

[tools]
"pipx:black" = { version = "latest", pipx_args = "--preinstall" }

uvx

Set to false to always disable uv for this tool.

[tools]
"pipx:ansible" = { version = "latest", uvx = "false", pipx_args = "--include-deps" }

uvx_args

Additional arguments to pass to uvx when installing the package.

[tools]
"pipx:ansible-core" = { version = "latest", uvx_args = "--with ansible" }