Manage and run popular binaries as package.json dependencies. CLI and API interfaces.

gobot installs popular binary apps anywhere npm is available. It transparently downloads, installs, and runs binary apps (including semver ranges) for the current operating system and architecture.

Works on Windows, Linux, OS X.

Features

• Run any version of supported apps and many unsupported apps from github.
• Binaries are intelligently downloaded and cached
• New binary versions are automatically detected and downloaded
• Efficient - downloads only what is needed

Inspired by esbuild and other packages that install binary dependencies

npm i -g gobot
gobot pocketbase --help
gobot caddy --help
gobot act --help

# Run unofficial binaries from github
gobot <user>/<repo> --help

or

npx gobot <app>

	<app>	What is it?
	act	Run your GitHub Actions locally 🚀 gobot docs	readme
	AdGuardHome	Network-wide ads & trackers blocking DNS server gobot docs	readme
	caddy	Fast and extensible multi-platform HTTP/1-2-3 web server with automatic HTTPS gobot docs	readme
	mc	The Object Store for AI Data Infrastructure (client) gobot docs	readme
	minio	The Object Store for AI Data Infrastructure (server) gobot docs	readme
	pocketbase	Open Source realtime backend in 1 file gobot docs	readme
	pulumi	Pulumi - Infrastructure as Code in any programming language. Build infrastructure intuitively on any cloud using familiar languages 🚀 gobot docs	readme
	rclone	rsync for cloud storage" - Google Drive, S3, Dropbox, Backblaze B2, One Drive, Swift, Hubic, Wasabi, Google Cloud Storage, Yandex Files gobot docs	readme
	weaviate	Weaviate is an open source vector database that stores both objects and vectors, allowing for combining vector search with structured filtering with the fault-tolerance and scalability of a cloud-native database, all accessible through GraphQL, REST, and various language clients. gobot docs	readme

gobot can run many apps hosted on github, without official support.

gobot <user>/<repo>

Example

# Run PocketBase as a direct repo name rather than the `pocketbase` alias
gobot pocketbase/pocketbase --help

or API:

gobot(`pocketbase/pocketbase`).run([`--help`])

The above command format may run the app you have in mind. For example, gobot caddy --help runs the Caddy by the official name, but gobot caddyserver/caddy --help will also run it.

As long as the project uses the github Releases feature and includes statically linked binaries with zero dependencies, gobot can probably run it.

Go apps work flawlessly. gobot was originally named and conceived to support Go apps.

All Gobot options begin with --g- so as not to conflict with app option switches. Every unrecognized option is passed through to the app binary.

Examples

# Run `pocketbase serve`
npx gobot pocketbase serve

# Run in gobot debugging mode`
npx gobot --g-debug

# Run a specific PocketBase version
npx gobot pocketbase --g-version="0.21.0" # Run this exact version
npx gobot pocketbase --g-version="~0.21.0" # Run highest 0.21.z version
npx gobot pocketbase --g-version="0.*" # Run highest 0.y.z

# Force gobot to dump cache and refresh PocketBase tags and binaries
npx gobot pocketbase --g-refresh

gobot can be used programmatically. You can add gobot as a dependency of your nodejs package and benefit from the seamless management of binary dependencies.

import { gobot } from 'gobot'

const bot = gobot(`pocketbase`)
const childProcess = bot.run([`serve`])

Full API Docs

If you are writing a nodejs application that depends upon binaries being present (like PocketHost does), you can add this package as a dependency and execute the binary via CLI or programmatically. This package will make sure your desired external binaries are always available.

If you just want to grab a binary quickly for your own use, npx gobot@latest <app> is quite a bit easier than manually downloading zips and installing binaries in shell paths. Gobot handles it all for you effortlessly.

If a Gobot does not run, or one of its apps does not run, it's likely you need to authorize it first. Go to Security & Privacy and scroll down to allow the exception.

We want to add native support for lots of binary apps!

If you use publish statically linked binary releases on github, you are already compatible with Gobot. Send us a PR.

Note: GoReleaser is a great option if you're publish a Go-based project.

We could use help testing and making sure this works across lots of platforms.

To test a build locally:

pnpm test