pantry

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What We Are

pantry is a fast, modern package manager that handles both system-level binaries and JavaScript/TypeScript packages. Install tools like curl, Python, Node.js, Go, and 1,600+ more as pre-built binaries — plus the entire npm ecosystem with 3M+ packages.

System packages are built from source via pkgx pantry recipes, compiled for macOS, Linux, and Windows (both x86_64 and ARM64), and distributed as tarballs through our CDN-backed registry. npm packages are resolved and installed natively through the full npm registry.

What Makes Us Different

— One tool for everything — pantry manages both system-level binaries (curl, Python, Redis) and JavaScript/TypeScript packages from npm. No need to juggle Homebrew, nvm, and npm separately.
— Pre-built, not compiled — system packages are pre-built in CI and downloaded as binaries. No compiling from source on your machine, no Xcode CLT required.
— Full npm compatibility — pantry acts as a drop-in npm client with access to the entire npm registry. Install, publish, and manage JS/TS packages with workspace and monorepo support.

How It Works

1. Packages are defined as YAML recipes in the pkgx pantry
2. Our CI builds packages for all supported platforms and uploads tarballs to S3
3. The registry serves metadata and binary downloads via CloudFront CDN
4. The CLI downloads, extracts, and symlinks binaries into your PATH — instant installs

Built With Zig

The pantry CLI is written in Zig for maximum performance and minimal overhead. It has zero runtime dependencies, starts instantly, and uses parallel downloads to install packages as fast as your connection allows.

Team

pantry is built and maintained by the Stacks.js team. We believe in open source, developer experience, and tools that just work.

Get Involved

Contribute

Help improve pantry on GitHub

Chat

Join the community on Discord

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