Effortless binary manager. Install, update, and organize standalone binaries pulled straight from release pages — no package manager, no build step.

bin downloads release assets from GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg, HashiCorp releases, Docker images, or go install, picks the right artifact for your OS/arch, unpacks it if needed, and keeps track of what's installed so you can update everything in one command.

A hard fork of marcosnils/bin with a single tagged config, repo descriptions, and a full TUI.

go install github.com/bresilla/bin/src@latest

or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/bresilla/bin
cd bin
make build      # produces ./bin

On first run, bin picks a download directory from your PATH (e.g. ~/.local/bin) and creates its config.

bin install github.com/sharkdp/bat     # install (alias: add, i)
bin                                     # launch the interactive TUI
bin list                                # plain table of everything
bin update                              # update the "default" tier
bin update bat                          # update a single binary
bin remove bat                          # uninstall (alias: rm, uninstall, delete)

Running bin with no arguments opens the TUI on a real terminal, and falls back to list when piped.

Useful flags on update:

• --dry-run — report what would update, change nothing
• -y, --yes — skip the confirmation prompt
• -r, --recheck — re-prompt for asset selection instead of reusing the remembered choice
• -c, --continue-on-error — keep going if one binary fails

Every binary has one or more tags. Untagged binaries belong to default. A persistent --tag/-t flag sets the tag context for any command:

bin install -t essential github.com/junegunn/fzf   # install tagged "essential"
bin -t essential update                             # update only the "essential" tier
bin -t all list                                     # everything, regardless of tag
bin update                                          # == bin -t default update

• No --tag → acts on the default tier.
• --tag all → acts on every binary.

Change tags after the fact:

bin tag ls                          # list tags and counts
bin tag show bat                    # show a binary's tags
bin tag add essential bat fzf       # add a tag
bin tag rm  essential bat           # remove a tag (falls back to "default")

bin stores each repo's one-line description in the manifest so the TUI can show it offline. New installs fetch it automatically; backfill existing entries with:

bin -t all describe          # fetch descriptions for everything missing one
bin describe --force bat     # refetch even if already present

For private/rate-limited repos, export a token first (see Authentication).

Run bin (no args) to open the interactive UI: a full-width list with two-line entries showing name, version + update status, repo, architecture, libc (musl/glibc/static), size, tags, and the repo description.

On first run bin writes a config file. Colors are terminal palette indexes (0–255) or hex — so pywal-style tools recolor bin automatically, and the 232..255 grayscale ramp gives subtle row shading:

# foreground colors
accent = 1     text = 15    muted = 8
ok = 2         warn = 3     err = 9     tag = 6

# TUI row backgrounds (alternating + selected)
row_bg          = 232
row_bg_alt      = 235
row_bg_selected = 237

The manifest and per-machine state are kept separate so the manifest is safe to share or check into dotfiles. Config resolution honors $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, falling back to ~/.config/bin (or a legacy ~/.bin).

Asset selection scores candidates by OS/arch and filters out non-installable files (.sig, .sha256, .sbom, .deb, …). Your pick is remembered, so updates don't re-prompt unless the release's file layout changes (use update -r to force a re-pick).

Set as needed in your environment:

• GITHUB_AUTH_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN — GitHub API (avoids the 60 req/hr unauthenticated limit)
• CODEBERG_TOKEN — Codeberg
• GHES_BASE_URL, GHES_UPLOAD_URL, GHES_AUTH_TOKEN — GitHub Enterprise

make build      # build ./bin (version-stamped)
make install    # install to $PREFIX/bin (default ~/.local/bin)
make run ARGS='list -t all'
make test       # go test ./...
make verify     # fmt-check + vet + test
make release TYPE=minor   # cut a release via git-rel
make help       # list all targets

MIT — see LICENSE. bin is a hard fork of marcosnils/bin; see ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.md.