rtx(1)
rtx is a polyglot runtime manager that installs and manages multiple programming language versions and tools.
Synopsis
rtx [COMMAND] [OPTIONS] [ARGUMENTS]Description
rtx is a fast, flexible runtime version manager written in Rust. It manages installations of Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, Rust, and hundreds of other tools and runtimes. rtx automatically selects the correct version based on .rtx.toml or .tool-versions files in your project directory.
rtx uses a plugin system to support any language or tool. Versions are stored locally and can be activated globally, per-project, or per-shell session. It's designed as a modern replacement for nvm, pyenv, rbenv, and similar single-language version managers.
Common options
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
install | Install a runtime or tool version, e.g., rtx install node@18.0.0 |
use | Activate a runtime version for the current shell or project |
list | List available versions of a runtime |
local | Set or show the local (project-level) runtime version |
global | Set or show the global (user-level) runtime version |
shell | Set or show the shell-level runtime version for the current session |
uninstall | Uninstall a runtime or tool version |
which | Show the path to the currently active version of a tool |
--version | Display rtx version |
-q, --quiet | Suppress output |
Examples
Install Node.js version 18.0.0
rtx install node@18.0.0Activate Python 3.11 in the current shell session
rtx use python@3.11Set Node.js 20 and Python 3.12 as project defaults in .rtx.toml
rtx local node@20 python@3.12Set Go 1.21 as your global default version
rtx global go@1.21List all available Node.js versions in remote registries
rtx list nodeShow the full path to the currently active Python interpreter
rtx which pythonRemove Node.js 16.0.0 from your system
rtx uninstall node@16.0.0Add support for managing Ruby versions via a custom plugin
rtx plugin install ruby https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-ruby.git