pm

A CLI for smarter package manager operations (especially in monorepos).

• Package manager agnostic — works with pnpm, bun, and nub, no need to remember which one your project uses
• Clean signal handling — Ctrl+C properly shuts down the entire process tree, no orphaned dev servers
• Easy navigation — jump to any workspace package from anywhere

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3d5496a9-91be-47dc-9e01-db8c5052c7c5

Install

brew install fdarian/tap/better-pm

Homebrew is recommended — it installs a native binary, so shell completions resolve in ~60ms.

npm install -g better-pm

Then activate shell integration:

# Add to your .zshrc (or .bashrc)
eval "$(pm activate zsh)"  # or bash

Commands

pm i                     Install
pm add <pkg>             Add a dependency (-D for dev)
pm remove <pkg>          Remove a dependency
pm ls                    List workspace packages (passthrough to the underlying package manager)
pm cd <pkg>              cd into a workspace package
pm doctor                Show the resolved package manager and project root
pm run <script>           Run a package.json script
pm <script>               Shorthand for pm run
pm exec <cmd>             Run a locally installed binary

Add -F/--filter <pkg> to i, add, remove, run, up/update, exec, why, unlink, or ls to scope it to specific workspace package(s), mirroring pnpm's -F. It chains, so you can target multiple packages in one go, and it works with the pm <script> shorthand too. Not available on link, x, cd, or activate — and bun doesn't support it on exec/why/unlink/ls either, so those fail loudly rather than silently ignoring the flag:

pm i -F @myapp/web -F @myapp/api
pm add -F @myapp/web lodash
pm -F @myapp/web dev

Configuration

Drop a pm.config.json next to your lockfile to configure pm for your project.

Auto-scope installs to the current package

With scopedInstall: true, running pm i from inside a workspace package installs only that package. From the monorepo root, pm i prompts before installing everything:

{
  "scopedInstall": true
}

[WARNING] You are at the monorepo root. This will install ALL packages.

Workspace packages:
├── packages/
│   ├── core "@myapp/core"
│   └── utils "@myapp/utils"
└── apps/
    └── web "@myapp/web"

To install a specific package:
  pm i -F <package-name>

To install everything:
  pm i -y

Paste-friendly add

Copied a command from a README? Just paste it:

pm add "npm install -D something"    # automatically extracts -D and the package
pm add "pnpm add foo bar"            # works with any package manager command
pm add "bun add -D @scope/pkg"       # scoped packages too

pm detects pasted npm install, pnpm add, bun add (and their shorthands like npm i) and extracts the packages and -D flag automatically.

Workspace navigation

List workspace packages (runs pnpm ls/bun pm ls/npm ls under the hood):

pm ls

Jump to any package directory (requires shell integration):

pm cd @myapp/web    # cd into a workspace package
pm cd               # cd to monorepo root

Development

pnpm install
bun run check:tsc
bun entries/cli.ts i

To test shell integration and tab-completion (pm cd, -F/--filter) against local source instead of the installed pm, source the dev-activate script in your shell:

. scripts/dev-activate.sh

This points pm at this repo's source for the current shell session only.

Neovim

A companion plugin opens workspace packages in oil.nvim via :pm cd <package-name> (a cmdline abbreviation for the underlying :Pm command). See docs/nvim.md.