zana-client

Terms used • Requirements • Install • Usage • Supported providers

Zana 📦 aims to be like Mason.nvim 🧱, but with the goal of supporting 🌈 not only Neovim, but rather any other editor 🫶.

Zana is swahili for "tools" or "tooling."

Currently, Zana is in early development, but should be considered stable enough for general use.

Terms used

• Language Server Protocol (LSP): A protocol that defines how code editors and IDEs communicate with language servers.
• Debug Adapter Protocol (DAP): A protocol that defines how code editors and IDEs communicate with debuggers.
• Package: A package is a LSP server, DAP server, formatter or linter that can be installed via Zana.
• Provider: A provider is a package source, e.g., npm, pypi, golang, etc.
• Package ID: A package ID is a unique identifier for a package, e.g., npm:@mistweavercokulala-ls@0.1.0.
• Zana Registry: The Zana Registry is a registry of available packages that can be installed via Zana.
• Terminal User Interface (TUI): A text-based user interface that runs in a terminal emulator.

A minimal LSP/DAP/formatter/linter package manager uses the Zana Registry to install and manage packages.

Easily install and manage LSP servers, DAP servers, linters, and formatters.

Requirements

Zana is a CLI, therefore you need to have a terminal emulator available.

Besides that, we shell out a lot to install packages.

E.g. if you want to install npm packages, you need to have npm installed.

For the packages to work in Neovim, you either need to zana.nvim installed, or source the environment setup in your shell.

source <(zana env)

Install

Just head over to the download page or grab it directtly from the releases.

Usage

The heart of Zana is its zana-lock.json file. This file is used to keep track of the installed packages and their versions.

You can tell Zana where to find the zana-lock.json and the packages by setting the environment variable ZANA_HOME.

If ZANA_HOME isn't set, Zana will look for the zana-lock.json file in the default locations:

• Linux: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/zana/zana-lock.json or $HOME/.config/zana/zana-lock.json
• macOS: $HOME/Library/Application Support/zana/zana-lock.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\zana\zana-lock.json

If the file doesn't exist, Zana will create it for you (when you install a package).

It's advised to keep the zana-lock.json file in version control.

Modify environment path

If you want the installed packages to be available in your path, you can add the following to your shell configuration file:

bash environment setup

add to ~/.bashrc:

source <(zana env)

zsh environment setup

add to ~/.zshrc:

source <(zana env zsh)

or with evalcache for zsh, add to ~/.zshrc:

_evalcache zana env zsh

PowerShell environment setup

add to profile:

zana env powershell | Invoke-Expression

CLI autocompletion

If you want autocompletion for the CLI commands, you can add the following to your shell configuration file:

bash autocompletion setup

add to ~/.bashrc:

source <(zana completion bash)

zsh autocompletion setup

add to ~/.zshrc:

source <(zana completion zsh)

fish autocompletion setup

add to ~/.config/fish/completions/zana.fish:

zana completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/zana.fish

powershell autocompletion setup

add to profile:

zana completion powershell | Invoke-Expression

CLI Options

You can run zana --help to see the available CLI options.

zana show

show/info/details shows information about one or more packages.

zana show \
  npm:@mistweavercokulala-ls@0.1.0 \
  pypi:black \
  golang:golangci-lint

zana install

install/add install packages

zana install \
  npm:@mistweavercokulala-ls@0.1.0 \
  pypi:black \
  golang:golangci-lint

zana sync

sync syncs the installed packages or registry data.

For packages, it'll make sure exactly the same packages are installed that are listed in the zana-lock.json file.

zana sync packages

For registry data, it'll update the local registry cache with the latest data from the Zana Registry.

zana sync registry

The registry data is cached locally, but with the sync registry command you can force an update.

zana list

list/ls list all installed packages.

zana list

or with --all/-A flag all available packages.

zana list --all

You can also filter packages by prefix of either the package id or name.

 # lists all available packages with "yaml" in the name
zana list -A yaml

zana update

update/up updates packages.

zana update \
  npm:@mistweavercokulala-ls \
  pypi:black@latest

You can also update all packages at once with the --all/-A flag.

zana update --all

or filter packages by prefix of either the package id or name.

 # updates all installed packages with "yaml" in the name
zana update -A yaml

Zana can also update itself with:

zana update --self

zana remove

remove/rm removes packages.

zana remove \
  npm:@mistweavercokulala-ls \
  pypi:black

or filter packages by prefix of either the package id or name.

 # removes all installed packages with "yaml" in the name
zana remove -A yaml

zana health

• health checks for requirements (for shelling out to install packages)

zana health

Where are the packages?

Zana uses a basepath to install packages of different types.

If you have set the ZANA_HOME environment variable, the basepath will be $ZANA_HOME/packages.

If ZANA_HOME isn't set, the basepath is:

• Linux: $XDG_DATA_HOME/zana/packages or $HOME/.local/share/zana/packages
• macOS: $HOME/Library/Application Support/zana/packages
• Windows: %APPDATA%\zana\packages

The packages are installed in the following directory structure:

$basepath/$provider/$package-name/

Supported providers

• cargo
• codeberg
• composer
• gem
• generic (shell commands)
• github
• gitlab
• golang
• luarocks
• npm
• nuget
• opam
• openvsx
• pypi