pixi-browse

An interactive terminal UI for browsing conda package metadata. Explore packages, versions, dependencies, and more from any conda channel — right from your terminal.

Features

• Browse packages from any conda channel (conda-forge, prefix.dev, etc.)
• Substring search to quickly filter through thousands of packages, as well as through a package's versions, dependencies and files
• Inspect versions grouped by platform with collapsible sections
• View detailed metadata including dependencies, license, checksums, build info, and timestamps
• Inspect package contents — file listings and about.json extracted directly from artifacts
• Spot repodata patches — diff an artifact's original index.json against the patched repodata served by the channel
• Compare artifacts — metadata, dependencies, and file lists of two builds side by side, with optional file diffs
• Clickable links to source repositories, maintainer GitHub profiles, and provenance commits
• Download artifacts directly to your working directory
• Vim-style keybindings for fast keyboard-driven navigation

Installation

From conda-forge

pixi global install pixi-browse
# or use without installation
pixi exec pixi-browse

From PyPI

uv tool install pixi-browse
# or use without installation
uvx pixi-browse

Optional: file diffs

Comparing two artifacts (C) can show a side-by-side diff of a file that differs between them. This uses textual-diff-view, which is AGPL-3.0 licensed and therefore not installed by default:

pixi global install 'pixi-browse[extras=diff]'
pixi exec -s 'pixi-browse[extras=diff]' pixi-browse

# or from PyPI
uv tool install 'pixi-browse[diff]'
uvx 'pixi-browse[diff]'

Without it, the Diff left / right action in the compare view asks for this package.

Usage

# Browse configured default channels (conda-forge if unset) across all platforms
pixi-browse

# Read a specific config file
pixi-browse --config ./config.toml

# Browse a different channel
pixi-browse -c https://prefix.dev/conda-forge

# Browse several channels at once
pixi-browse -c conda-forge -c bioconda

# Restrict to specific platforms
pixi-browse -p linux-64 -p osx-arm64

# Start with a MatchSpec query applied
pixi-browse -m "numpy >=2"

# Combine channel, platform, and MatchSpec filters
pixi-browse -c https://prefix.dev/conda-forge -p linux-64 -m "python >=3.13"

# Show version
pixi-browse --version

CLI Options

Configuration

Without --config, pixi-browse loads Pixi's default configuration locations through rattler, including shared rattler configuration. These include system configuration, the platform's user configuration directory (and XDG_CONFIG_HOME), and $PIXI_HOME/config.toml or ~/.pixi/config.toml. Later files override earlier ones; missing default files are skipped. --config <path> reads only that file and reports missing or invalid files.

default-channels = ["conda-forge", "bioconda"]

[mirrors]
"https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge" = ["https://prefix.dev/conda-forge"]

[repodata-config]
disable-sharded = true

The shared network client applies mirrors, S3 options, authentication, proxy, and TLS settings to repodata, package previews, and downloads. Repodata format settings (including per-channel overrides) and concurrency.downloads are applied to the gateway. Who-needs queries scan the full channel repodata, even when sharded repodata is enabled for browsing.

Explicit -c flags replace default-channels. If neither is set, pixi-browse uses conda-forge.

Keybindings

Navigation

App

Channel selector

c opens a dialog with the channels being browsed. The package list and the MatchSpec and who-needs queries run against all of them.

Development

This project is managed by pixi.

git clone https://github.com/pavelzw/pixi-browse
cd pixi-browse

pixi run pre-commit-install

Running Tests

pixi run test

The tests run the app against small offline conda channels (conda-forge and bioconda) made of real artifacts listed in tests/fixtures/channel_artifacts.toml. They are downloaded into the git-ignored tests/fixtures/channels/ directory on first use (or ahead of time with pixi run fetch-test-channel) and verified by SHA256, so later runs work offline. TUI screens are checked with pytest-textual-snapshot.

The app draws in ANSI colors, so the terminal palette alone decides how it looks. Every screen is therefore snapshotted twice from a single app run, with the two palettes pixi run demo records the demos with (rose-pine-moon and rose-pine-dawn), side by side as tests/__snapshots__/<module>/<test>.{dark,light}.svg.

After an intentional UI change, review snapshot_report.html and accept the new screenshots with:

pixi run snapshot-update

To review committed snapshot changes against main without rerunning the tests:

pixi run snapshot-report

Linting

pixi run pre-commit-run