Boss is an open source dependency manager inspired by npm for projects developed in Delphi and Lazarus.

We have a Getting Started article to help you get started with Boss.

• Download setup
• Just type boss in the terminal
• (Optional) Install a Boss Delphi IDE complement

Or you can use the following the steps below:

• Download the latest version of the Boss
• Extract the files to a folder
• Add the folder to the system path
• Run the command boss in the terminal

Initialize a new project and create a boss.json file. Add -q or --quiet to skip interactive prompts and use default values.

boss init
boss init -q
boss init --quiet

Install one or more dependencies with real-time progress tracking:

boss install <dependency>

Progress Tracking: Boss displays progress for each dependency being installed:

⏳ horse                          Waiting...
🧬 dataset-serialize              Cloning...
🔍 jhonson                        Checking...
🔥 redis-client                   Installing...
📦 boss-core                      Installed

The dependency name is case insensitive. For example, boss install horse is the same as boss install HORSE.

boss install horse                        # HashLoad organization on GitHub
boss install fake/horse                   # Fake organization on GitHub
boss install gitlab.com/fake/horse        # Fake organization on GitLab
boss install https://gitlab.com/fake/horse # Full URL

You can also specify the compiler version and platform:

boss install --compiler=37.0 --platform=Win64

Aliases: i, add

Remove a dependency from the project:

boss uninstall <dependency>

Aliases: remove, rm, r, un, unlink

Update all installed dependencies to their latest compatible versions:

boss update

Aliases: up

Upgrade the Boss CLI to the latest version. Add --dev to upgrade to the latest pre-release:

boss upgrade
boss upgrade --dev

List all project dependencies in a tree format. Add -v to show version information:

boss dependencies
boss dependencies -v
boss dependencies <package>
boss dependencies <package> -v

Aliases: dep, ls, list, ll, la, dependency

Execute a custom script defined in your boss.json file. Scripts are defined in the scripts section:

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "msbuild MyProject.dproj",
    "test": "MyProject.exe --test",
    "clean": "del /s *.dcu"
  }
}

boss run build
boss run test
boss run clean

Register credentials for a repository. Useful for private repositories:

boss login <repo>
boss login <repo> -u UserName -p Password
boss login <repo> -s -k PrivateKey -p PassPhrase  # SSH authentication

Aliases: adduser, add-user

Remove saved credentials for a repository:

boss logout <repo>

Show the Boss CLI version:

boss version
boss v
boss -v
boss --version

Aliases: v

Use global environment for installation. Packages installed globally are available system-wide:

boss install -g <dependency>
boss --global install <dependency>

Enable debug mode to see detailed output:

boss install --debug
boss -d install

Show help for any command:

boss --help
boss <command> --help

Manage the Boss cache. Remove all cached modules to free up disk space:

boss config cache rm

Aliases: purge, clean

You can configure which Delphi version BOSS should use for compilation. This is useful when you have multiple Delphi versions installed.

Lists all detected Delphi installations (32-bit and 64-bit) with their indexes.

boss config delphi list

Selects a specific Delphi version to use globally. You can use the index from the list command, the version number, or the version with architecture.

boss config delphi use <index>
# or
boss config delphi use <version>
# or
boss config delphi use <version>-<arch>

Example:

boss config delphi use 0
boss config delphi use 37.0
boss config delphi use 37.0-Win64

You can configure which Git client BOSS should use.

• embedded: Uses the built-in go-git client (default).
• native: Uses the system's installed git client (git.exe).

Using native is recommended on Windows if you need support for core.autocrlf (automatic line ending conversion).

boss config git mode native
# or
boss config git mode embedded

You can enable shallow cloning to significantly speed up dependency downloads. Shallow clones only fetch the latest commit without the full git history, reducing download size dramatically (e.g., from 127 MB to <1 MB for large repositories).

# Enable shallow clone (faster, recommended for CI/CD)
boss config git shallow true

# Disable shallow clone (full history)
boss config git shallow false

Note: Shallow clone is disabled by default to maintain compatibility. When enabled, you won't have access to the full git history of dependencies.

You can also temporarily enable shallow clone using an environment variable:

# Windows
set BOSS_GIT_SHALLOW=1
boss install

# Linux/macOS
BOSS_GIT_SHALLOW=1 boss install

You can also specify the required compiler version and platform in your project's boss.json file. This ensures that everyone working on the project uses the correct toolchain.

Add a toolchain section to your boss.json:

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "toolchain": {
    "compiler": "37.0",
    "platform": "Win64"
  }
}

Supported fields in toolchain:

• compiler: The compiler version (e.g., "37.0").
• platform: The target platform ("Win32" or "Win64").
• path: Explicit path to the compiler (optional).
• strict: If true, fails if the exact version is not found (optional).

boss install horse
boss install horse:1.0.0
boss install -g delphi-docker
boss install -g boss-ide

You can specify which update types your package can accept from dependencies in your package's boss.json file.

For example, to specify acceptable version ranges up to 1.0.4, use the following syntax:

• Patch releases: 1.0 or 1.0.x or ~1.0.4
• Minor releases: 1 or 1.x or ^1.0.4
• Major releases: * or x

The boss.json file is the manifest for your Delphi/Lazarus project. It contains metadata, dependencies, build configuration, and custom scripts.

Here's a comprehensive example showing all available fields:

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "description": "A sample Delphi project using Boss",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "homepage": "https://github.com/myuser/my-project",
  "mainsrc": "src/",
  "browsingpath": "src/;libs/",
  "projects": [
    "MyProject.dproj",
    "MyPackage.dproj"
  ],
  "dependencies": {
    "github.com/HashLoad/horse": "^3.0.0",
    "github.com/HashLoad/jhonson": "~2.1.0",
    "dataset-serialize": "*"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "build": "msbuild MyProject.dproj /p:Config=Release",
    "test": "MyProject.exe --test",
    "clean": "del /s *.dcu"
  },
  "engines": {
    "compiler": ">=35.0",
    "platforms": ["Win32", "Win64"]
  },
  "toolchain": {
    "compiler": "37.0",
    "platform": "Win64",
    "path": "C:\\Program Files\\Embarcadero\\Studio\\37.0",
    "strict": false
  }
}

• name (required): Package name. Must be unique if publishing.

  "name": "my-awesome-library"

• description (optional): A brief description of your project.

  "description": "REST API framework for Delphi"

• version (required): Package version following semantic versioning.

  "version": "1.2.3"

• homepage (optional): Project website or repository URL.

  "homepage": "https://github.com/myuser/my-project"

• mainsrc (optional): Main source directory path.

  "mainsrc": "src/"

• browsingpath (optional): Additional paths for IDE browsing (semicolon-separated).

  "browsingpath": "src/;src/controllers/;src/models/"

• projects (optional): List of Delphi project files (.dproj) to compile.

  "projects": [
    "MyProject.dproj",
    "MyLibrary.dproj"
  ]

  Note: If not specified, Boss won't compile the package but will still manage dependencies.

• dependencies (optional): Map of package dependencies with version constraints.

  "dependencies": {
    "github.com/HashLoad/horse": "^3.0.0",
    "dataset-serialize": "~2.1.0",
    "jhonson": "*"
  }

  Supported version formats:

  • Exact version: "1.0.0"
  • Caret (minor updates): "^1.0.0" (allows 1.x.x, but not 2.x.x)
  • Tilde (patch updates): "~1.0.0" (allows 1.0.x, but not 1.1.x)
  • Wildcard (any): "*" or "x"
  • Range: ">=1.0.0 <2.0.0"

• scripts (optional): Custom commands you can run with boss run <script-name>.

  "scripts": {
    "build": "msbuild MyProject.dproj /p:Config=Release",
    "test": "dunitx-console.exe MyProject.exe",
    "clean": "del /s *.dcu *.exe",
    "deploy": "xcopy /s /y bin\\*.exe deploy\\"
  }

  Execute with:

  boss run build
  boss run test

• engines (optional): Specify minimum compiler/platform requirements.

  "engines": {
    "compiler": ">=35.0",
    "platforms": ["Win32", "Win64", "Linux64"]
  }

  • compiler: Minimum compiler version
  • platforms: Supported target platforms

• toolchain (optional): Specify the exact toolchain to use for this project.

  "toolchain": {
    "compiler": "37.0",
    "platform": "Win64",
    "path": "C:\\Program Files\\Embarcadero\\Studio\\37.0",
    "strict": true
  }

  • compiler: Required compiler version
  • platform: Target platform ("Win32", "Win64", "Linux64", etc.)
  • path: Explicit path to the compiler (optional)
  • strict: If true, fails if the exact version is not found (default: false)

The minimal valid boss.json file:

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "version": "1.0.0"
}

Use boss init to create a new boss.json interactively:

boss init

Or use quiet mode for defaults:

boss init -q

{
  "name": "my-delphi-library",
  "description": "Utilities for Delphi applications",
  "version": "2.1.0",
  "homepage": "https://github.com/myuser/my-library",
  "mainsrc": "src/",
  "projects": [
    "MyLibrary.dproj"
  ],
  "dependencies": {
    "github.com/HashLoad/horse": "^3.0.0"
  }
}

{
  "name": "my-app",
  "description": "My awesome Delphi application",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "projects": [
    "MyApp.dproj"
  ],
  "dependencies": {
    "github.com/HashLoad/horse": "^3.0.0"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "build": "msbuild MyApp.dproj /p:Config=Release",
    "run": "bin\\MyApp.exe",
    "test": "dunitx-console.exe bin\\MyAppTests.exe"
  },
  "toolchain": {
    "compiler": "37.0",
    "platform": "Win32"
  }
}