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pixi publish#

Build a conda package and publish it to a channel.

pixi publish is a convenience command that builds a conda package from your workspace and uploads it to a channel in a single step. It combines the functionality of pixi build and pixi upload.

The --to flag determines the target channel. The upload backend is automatically detected from the URL:

URL pattern Backend
https://prefix.dev/<channel> prefix.dev
https://anaconda.org/<owner> Anaconda.org
s3://bucket-name/channel S3-compatible storage
file:///path/to/channel Local filesystem
quetz://server/<channel> Quetz
artifactory://server/<channel> JFrog Artifactory

Usage#

pixi publish [OPTIONS] --to <TO>

Options#

Config Options#

Update Options#

  • --no-install
    Don't modify the environment, only modify the lock-file
  • --frozen
    Install the environment as defined in the lockfile, doesn't update lockfile if it isn't up-to-date with the manifest file
    env: PIXI_FROZEN
  • --locked
    Check if lockfile is up-to-date before installing the environment, aborts when lockfile isn't up-to-date with the manifest file
    env: PIXI_LOCKED
  • --as-is
    Shorthand for the combination of --no-install and --frozen

Description#

Build a conda package and publish it to a channel.

This is a convenience command that combines pixi build and pixi upload.

Supported target channel URLs: - prefix.dev: https://prefix.dev/<channel-name> - anaconda.org: https://anaconda.org/<owner>/<label> - S3: s3://bucket-name - Filesystem: file:///path/to/channel - Quetz: quetz://server/<channel> - Artifactory: artifactory://server/<channel>

Examples#

Publishing to prefix.dev#

The most common use case is publishing packages to a channel on prefix.dev.

# Build and publish to your prefix.dev channel
pixi publish --to https://prefix.dev/my-channel

# Build for a specific target platform and publish
pixi publish --to https://prefix.dev/my-channel --target-platform linux-64

# Publish with sigstore attestation for supply chain security
pixi publish --to https://prefix.dev/my-channel --generate-attestation

# Force overwrite existing packages
pixi publish --to https://prefix.dev/my-channel --force

For authentication, either log in first with pixi auth login, or set the PREFIX_API_KEY environment variable:

# Option 1: Log in (credentials are stored in the keychain)
pixi auth login --token $MY_TOKEN https://prefix.dev
pixi publish --to https://prefix.dev/my-channel

# Option 2: Use trusted publishing in CI (no credentials needed)
pixi publish --to https://prefix.dev/my-channel

See the prefix.dev deployment guide for more details on setting up channels and trusted publishing.

Publishing to Anaconda.org#

# Build and publish to your Anaconda.org account
pixi publish --to https://anaconda.org/my-username

# Publish to a specific label/channel
pixi publish --to https://anaconda.org/my-username/dev

Publishing to S3#

When publishing to S3, the channel is automatically initialized (if new) and indexed after the upload.

# Build and publish to an S3 bucket (using AWS credentials from environment)
pixi publish --to s3://my-bucket/my-channel

S3 credentials are resolved from the standard AWS credential chain (environment variables, shared credentials file, instance profiles, etc.).

Publishing to a local filesystem channel#

Local channels are useful for development and testing. The channel directory is automatically created and indexed.

# Build and publish to a local channel
pixi publish --to file:///path/to/my-channel

# Force overwrite if the package already exists
pixi publish --to file:///path/to/my-channel --force

Publishing from a specific manifest#

# Publish a package from a specific recipe
pixi publish --to https://prefix.dev/my-channel --path ./my-recipe/recipe.yaml

# Publish from a different workspace
pixi publish --to https://prefix.dev/my-channel --path ./my-project/

Clean rebuild and publish#

# Clean the build directory before building and publishing
pixi publish --to https://prefix.dev/my-channel --clean

Authentication#

pixi publish uses the same authentication system as other pixi commands. Credentials can be configured in three ways:

  1. Keychain / auth-file: Use pixi auth login to store credentials 

    pixi auth login --token $MY_TOKEN https://prefix.dev

  2. Trusted publishing (CI): On GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Google Cloud, prefix.dev supports OIDC-based trusted publishing — no stored secrets required. See the prefix.dev trusted publishing guide.

  3. Environment variables:

    • PREFIX_API_KEY for prefix.dev
    • ANACONDA_API_KEY for Anaconda.org
    • QUETZ_API_KEY for Quetz
    • ARTIFACTORY_TOKEN for Artifactory
    • Standard AWS environment variables for S3

Comparison with pixi build + pixi upload#

pixi publish is a shorthand for running pixi build followed by pixi upload. Use it when you want a single command to build and deploy. If you need more control over the build output before uploading (e.g., testing the package locally), use pixi build and pixi upload separately.