Boss

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

<!-- getting start with emoji -->

🚀 Getting started

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

📦 Installation

• 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

📚 Available Commands

> Init

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

shellCopy
boss init
boss init -q
boss init --quiet

> Install

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

shellCopy
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.

shellCopy
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:

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

Aliases: i, add

> Uninstall

Remove a dependency from the project:

shCopy
boss uninstall <dependency>

Aliases: remove, rm, r, un, unlink

> Update

Update all installed dependencies to their latest compatible versions:

shCopy
boss update

Aliases: up

> Upgrade

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

shCopy
boss upgrade
boss upgrade --dev

> Dependencies

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

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

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

> Run

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

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

shCopy
boss run build
boss run test
boss run clean

> Login

Register credentials for a repository. Useful for private repositories:

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

Aliases: adduser, add-user

> Logout

Remove saved credentials for a repository:

shCopy
boss logout <repo>

> Version

Show the Boss CLI version:

shellCopy
boss version
boss v
boss -v
boss --version

Aliases: v

Global Flags

> Global (-g)

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

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

> Debug (-d)

Enable debug mode to see detailed output:

shCopy
boss install --debug
boss -d install

> Help (-h)

Show help for any command:

shCopy
boss --help
boss <command> --help

Configuration

> Cache

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

shCopy
boss config cache rm

Aliases: purge, clean

> Delphi Version

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

List available versions

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

shCopy
boss config delphi list

Select a version

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.

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

Example:

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

> Git Client

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).

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

Shallow Clone

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).

shCopy
# 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:

shCopy
# Windows
set BOSS_GIT_SHALLOW=1
boss install

# Linux/macOS
BOSS_GIT_SHALLOW=1 boss install

> Project Toolchain

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:

jsonCopy
{
  "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).

Samples

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

Using semantic versioning to specify update types your package can accept

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

boss.json File Format

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

Complete Structure

Here's a comprehensive example showing all available fields:

jsonCopy
{
  "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
  }
}

Field Descriptions

Core Fields

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

  jsonCopy
  "name": "my-awesome-library"

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

  jsonCopy
  "description": "REST API framework for Delphi"

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

  jsonCopy
  "version": "1.2.3"

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

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

Source Configuration

• mainsrc (optional): Main source directory path.

  jsonCopy
  "mainsrc": "src/"

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

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

Build Configuration

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

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

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

Dependencies

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

  jsonCopy
  "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"

Custom Scripts

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

  jsonCopy
  "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:

  shCopy
  boss run build
  boss run test

Engine Requirements

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

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

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

Toolchain Configuration

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

  jsonCopy
  "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)

Minimal boss.json

The minimal valid boss.json file:

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

Creating a new boss.json

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

shCopy
boss init

Or use quiet mode for defaults:

shCopy
boss init -q

Example: Library Package

jsonCopy
{
  "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"
  }
}

Example: Application Package

jsonCopy
{
  "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"
  }
}

💻 Code Contributors