Migrating from direnv

mise sets environment variables, loads dotenv files and adds PATH entries when you enter a directory, so a project that uses direnv for those things can drop it. Move the .envrc lines into mise.toml, then remove direnv's hook.

Unsupported

Running direnv and mise together is unsupported. Both change the environment when you enter a directory, and their shell hooks can disagree about which PATH entries to add, restore or remove. Compatibility issues are not considered mise bugs, and pull requests for direnv compatibility are not accepted.

Do you need direnv?

Each common .envrc line has a mise equivalent:

.envrc	mise.toml
export NODE_ENV=development	NODE_ENV = "development" under [env]
dotenv or dotenv_if_exists	_.file = ".env"; a missing file is skipped
PATH_add bin	_.path = "bin"
source script.sh	_.source = "script.sh"
source_env_if_exists .envrc.local	A mise.local.toml next to mise.toml, kept out of version control
source_up	Nothing; mise already merges the config files of parent directories
layout python	_.python.venv
layout node	_.path = "node_modules/.bin"

mise also does what direnv does not: it puts the project's tool versions on PATH, runs hooks when you enter or leave a project, and sets shell aliases.

Move an .envrc to mise.toml

For an .envrc that sets a variable, loads .env and adds bin to PATH:

mise.toml

[env]
NODE_ENV = "development"
_.file = ".env"
_.path = "bin"

If the project has no .env file, mise skips the _.file directive, so you can leave it in place or remove it. See Environment variables for defaults, unsetting values and sourcing scripts.

Remove direnv

1. Delete the lines you moved from each .envrc, or delete the whole file.
2. If you used the use mise integration, delete ~/.config/direnv/lib/use_mise.sh.
3. If you no longer use direnv anywhere, remove its hook, such as eval "$(direnv hook zsh)", from your shell startup file.
4. Activate mise if you have not already, and open a new shell.
5. Run mise env in the project to check the result. mise exec -- <command> checks a command without depending on the state of your interactive shell.

use mise in .envrc deprecated

The use mise integration let direnv load mise's environment. It is deprecated and unsupported; use mise activate instead. mise direnv and mise direnv activate print a deprecation warning and will be removed in mise 2027.10.4. The integration gives direnv control of the exported environment, so it does not run hooks, set shell aliases or install missing tools.

To find it in an existing setup, look for use mise in .envrc files, for the use_mise function in ~/.config/direnv/lib/use_mise.sh (written by mise direnv activate), and for setups that load it from a parent .envrc with source_up or from ~/.config/direnv/direnvrc.

If you keep it while you migrate:

• Do not let both tools manage the same runtime or virtualenv. A common conflict is direnv's layout python alongside a Python version that mise selects.
• The integration adds only the .tool-versions file next to .envrc to direnv's watch list. direnv does not notice changes to mise.toml or to config files in other directories, so run direnv reload after you edit them.

Shims are another way to run mise-managed tools without direnv, but they do not reproduce everything mise activate does.