Skip to content

Installation guide

Prerequisites

Using Phoenix libraries requires to install Pixi and use at least version 0.68. Pixi is a modern package and environment management tool designed for reproducible and multi-language software development. It provides a unified workflow for managing dependencies across ecosystems such as Python, C++, and Rust using the Conda package format under the hood.

Unlike traditional environment managers, Pixi focuses on project-centric reproducibility. Each project defines its dependencies in a declarative configuration file, ensuring that environments can be recreated identically on any machine or CI system.

Pixi also integrates tightly with modern development workflows by supporting:

  • Isolated environments per project
  • Fast and reliable dependency resolution
  • Cross-platform builds (Linux, macOS, Windows)
  • Seamless integration with CI/CD pipelines
  • Multi-language dependency support in a single tool

In research and high-performance software contexts, Pixi is particularly useful because it simplifies complex dependency stacks while maintaining strict reproducibility. This makes it well suited for scientific software, data processing pipelines, and long-term maintainable projects.

Overall, Pixi replaces fragmented tooling with a single, consistent interface for environment and package management, improving both developer experience and deployment reliability.

Install a package globally

Pixi provides a simple commandline interface to install and manage packages. As explained in the Available tools section, Phoenix packages are availe on two conda channels hosted on prefix.dev

  • phoenix contains releases of all Phoenix packages, including stable versions of libraries and applications.
  • phoenix-dev contain development versions of all Phoenix packages, including the latest features and bug fixes. This channel is intended for developers and early adopters who want to test new functionality before it is officially released.

If you want to install a Phoenix package globally, you can use the following command:

pixi global install --channel conda-forge --channel phoenix <package_name>

You have to specify the channel to install from, either phoenix for stable releases or phoenix-dev for development versions. Adding --channel conda-forge ensures that any dependencies from the conda-forge channel are also resolved correctly.

You can also add constaraints on the version of the package to install, for example, if you want to install version 1.2.3 of a package, you can use:

pixi global install --channel conda-forge --channel phoenix "<package_name>==1.2.3"

After installing, you will be able to use the package inside any Pixi workspace or project without needing to install it again. For executables installed globally, you can run them directly from the command line. For libraries, they will be available for import in your code.

Install a package inside your workspace

If you are already using pixi, you can add Phoenix packages as dependencies to your workspace. To do this, you need to edit the pixi.toml file in your workspace. First, add the phoenix channel to the list of channels in your pixi.toml file:

[workspace]
channels = [
    "conda-forge", # Ensure conda-forge packages can be resolved
    "phoenix",     # Add the Phoenix channel for stable releases
    "phoenix-dev"  # Add the Phoenix development channel for latest features if needed
]

Then, add the Phoenix package you want to use as a dependency in the [dependencies] section of your pixi.toml file. For example, to add the phoenixcmake package, you would add:

[dependencies]
phoenixcmake = ">=1.0.0,<2.0.0" # Specify the version range you want to use

You can also add a dependency to your workspace using the command line interface:

pixi add phoenixcmake