CLI Commands

This page summarizes the commands exposed by vs-cli today.

Registry and plugin discovery

vs update

Update a locally added plugin, or update all locally added plugins:

vs update nodejs
vs update --all

• vs update <plugin> updates one locally added plugin.
• vs update --all updates all locally added plugins.
• In the current help surface, vs update without a plugin name is not the registry-refresh workflow.

vs available

List plugins from the cached registry index:

vs available

Registry-backed commands such as vs available, vs search, and vs add <name> refresh the cached index on demand when a registry source is configured.

vs search

List available versions for a plugin:

vs search nodejs
vs search nodejs -- --lts

Additional trailing arguments are passed through to the plugin backend.

vs add and vs remove

Add a plugin from the registry:

vs add nodejs
vs add nodejs deno

Add a plugin directly from a source directory or URL:

vs add deno --source /path/to/plugin --backend wasi
vs add nodejs --source /path/to/plugin --backend lua --alias node

Remove a locally added plugin entry:

vs remove nodejs

vs add accepts one or more plugin names, or a single explicit --source.

Install, activate, and inspect runtimes

vs install

Install explicit tool specs:

vs install nodejs@20.11.1
vs install nodejs deno@1.40.5

Install all tools currently configured for the working context:

vs install --all

When you omit the version and use plugin only, the current implementation chooses the first version returned by the plugin backend.

vs uninstall

vs uninstall nodejs@20.11.1

vs use

Activate an already installed runtime:

vs use nodejs@20.11.1 -g
vs use nodejs@20.11.1 -p
VS_SESSION_ID=my-shell vs use nodejs@20.11.1 -s

Important details:

• vs use only activates installed versions.
• If you omit a scope flag, vs use defaults to session scope.
• In interactive terminals, vs use nodejs can prompt you to choose from installed versions.
• In non-interactive environments, vs use requires an explicit version.

Project scope can skip the .vs/sdks/<plugin> link while still writing .vs.toml:

vs use deno@1.40.5 -p --unlink

vs unuse

Remove an active version assignment:

vs unuse nodejs -g
vs unuse nodejs -p
vs unuse nodejs -s

Like vs use, vs unuse defaults to session scope when no explicit scope flag is provided.

Inspection commands

vs current
vs current nodejs
vs list
vs list nodejs
vs info nodejs
vs info nodejs@20.11.1
vs cd
vs cd nodejs
vs cd nodejs --plugin

Notes:

• vs info supports -f/--format for placeholder-based output formatting.
• vs cd prints a path in non-interactive mode and can open an interactive shell when a TTY UI is available.
• vs cd nodejs --plugin resolves the plugin source directory instead of the active runtime directory.

Shell and execution helpers

Generate activation scripts:

vs activate bash
vs activate zsh

Generate completions:

vs completion bash

Execute a command with the resolved environment:

vs exec nodejs node -v
vs exec nodejs@20.11.1 node -v

Config, migration, and self-upgrade

vs config --list
vs config registry.address /absolute/path/to/index.json
vs config --unset registry.address
vs migrate --source ~/.vfox
vs upgrade
vs upgrade --yes