Confusion around dev installations, what's the recommended setup?

[gaggle]

I love pkgx, but since the revamp with pkgm etc. I find myself a bit confused, and I'm lost in GitHub README instructions and instructions at e.g. https://docs.pkgx.sh...

Use case: The simplest solution to stand up ephemeral, reproducible dev environments across a team. Without adding tools globally, and ideally not requiring sudo.

From the docs, I gather I should:

• install pgkm - brew install pkgxdev/made/pkgm or curl https://pkgx.sh | sh
• install dev - sudo pkgm install dev

It seems confusing though that apparently brew install pkgm also install pkgx, and curl https://pkgx.sh installs pkgm?

But then I discovered shellcode dev, which seems closer to what I want. But the shellcode solution says to install via brew? So I should uninstall pkgm and then run brew install pkgxdev/made/dev, and then perhaps that will maybe also get me pkgx...?

In short:

• What is the official recommended path for ephemeral, non‑sudo, team dev environments?
• Could the docs be updated to show a clearer, more unified, "recommended" path?
• Is there a sanctioned way to install dev without home-brew, when one wants the "dev via shellcode" solution?

Just trying to understand the intended setup so I can use the tools as designed.

[gaggle]

FWIW, brew install pkgxdev/made/dev fails for me, I've reported that at pkgxdev/homebrew-made#13.

edit: this was quickly fixed by jhheider ❤️

[gaggle]

I can confirm brew install pkgxdev/made/dev installs both dev and pkgx. I was a bit surprised at first, but brew info pkgxdev/made/dev clearly shows it depends on pkgx, so I guess I shouldn't have been.

I'm still unsure if there's a meaningful difference between installing dev via pkgm or Homebrew. Leaving this open in case others have thoughts.

[gaggle]

Closing in favor of asking in Discord.

[mxcl]

I guess we need to make it clearer there are 2 ways to install all our tools? Is that the confusion? Not sure I understand TBH

[gaggle]

@mxcl yes, that’s exactly my confusion. From what I gathered on Discord, there's a difference depending on the use case: if I want ephemeral, local tools via dev, I should install via Homebrew, not via pkgm.

The confusion might seem odd from your perspective, but here's the mental mindset I followed to get tripped up:

• pkgx.sh now points to a README.. ok, whatever, I found the link to dev.
• Step one: install pkgm. Done.
• Oh, there's another section that shows a different way to install dev?
• Can I just brew install dev even though I already have pkgm?
• Oh, but brew install pkgxdev/made/dev also installs pkgx? But it doesn't do pkgm.
• To be safe, I'll wipe everything and just use Homebrew for dev.

This may sound like overthinking to folks familiar with the ecosystem, but I got tangled up in confusion. I’m asking questions here and on Discord to level up, and I harbor a small hope that perhaps my experience could help clarify the getting-started path for others.

[gaggle]

BTW, I appreciate your follow-up even on a closed thread. I try not to take time away from maintainers doing the hard work of building great tools. I’m happy to provide more context or suggestions if it’s helpful, and thanks again for making all this tooling available.