envPATH

EnvPATH is an open-source tool and specification for managing the system PATH environment variable across development environments. It provides a centralized mechanism to define, share, and switch between sets of directories that should be included in PATH, enabling reproducible builds and consistent tooling across projects and shells.

Origins and scope: EnvPATH emerged in the early 2020s as part of a family of environment-management tools. It aims to address issues of PATH drift when working on multiple projects or on multiple machines, by decoupling PATH configuration from individual shell startup files and enabling profile-based management.

Design and features: The project defines profiles, each listing directories to be added to PATH. Profiles can be associated with hosts, operating systems, or shells. Configurations are stored in human-readable files (for example envpath.yaml) in a repository. A command-line interface provides commands such as init, switch, list, and export. EnvPATH can generate shell-specific scripts to apply PATH changes in Bash, Zsh, Fish, or PowerShell, or emit a single command to evaluate in the current shell. It emphasizes isolation, reproducibility, and portability, and supports sharing profiles via version control or artifact repositories.

Usage: A typical workflow involves creating an envpath.yaml with profiles like dev, test, and prod, then using the switch command to activate a profile, which updates PATH for the current shell session or exports a script to apply it in other contexts.

Impact and reception: EnvPATH has seen adoption in several development workflows as a lightweight alternative to duplicating PATH logic in startup files, with cross-platform support and potential integrations in CI pipelines.

See also: PATH (computing), environment variable, direnv, asdf, virtual environments.