Install leiningen with Homebrew, apk, apt, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop, zypper, chocolatey

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• lein

Project history

Phil Hagelberg created Leiningen in 2009 to make Clojure project automation less painful than hand-written Maven configuration. The official tagline, 'automating Clojure projects without setting your hair on fire,' captured the design goal: declarative Clojure configuration, automatic dependency resolution, project skeletons, testing, REPL setup, jars, and uberjars from one command-line tool.

The 1.0.0 release on 2009-12-05 already had many features that shaped Clojure projects for years: configurable source, test, and compilation paths in `project.clj`, isolated classloading, Maven-free install behavior, `lein new`, generated POM metadata, test summaries, uberjar output, plugin flexibility, and resources on the classpath. Later releases added Windows support, upgrades, profiles, plugins, deploy workflows, nREPL integration, and ongoing compatibility updates.

Adoption history

Leiningen became the default entry point for many Clojure tutorials, libraries, and applications through the 2010s, before and alongside alternatives such as Boot and the official Clojure CLI/deps.edn tooling. Its wide package-manager availability reflects that history: installing `lein` from a system package manager remained a normal way to start working with Clojure projects.

How it is used

Typical users run `lein new`, `lein test`, `lein repl`, `lein run`, `lein jar`, `lein uberjar`, and `lein deploy`, with project settings in `project.clj` and user or system defaults in profiles files. Credentials files under `~/.lein` support publishing workflows such as deploying artifacts to repositories.

Why package nerds care

Leiningen is package-nerd significant because it made Maven-style dependency and artifact workflows feel native to Clojure. It linked Clojure code, Maven repositories, REPL-driven development, project templates, plugins, and uberjar packaging into one memorable command, which shaped how Clojure packages were created and consumed for more than a decade.

Timeline

• 2009-11-17: Leiningen's release history records the early 0.5.0 release date.
• 2009-12-05: Leiningen 1.0.0 shipped with project.clj paths, isolated classloading, `lein new`, generated POM metadata, test summaries, and uberjar output.
• 2010-02-16: Leiningen 1.1.0 added `lein upgrade`, dependency exclusions, native-code dependency support, and experimental Windows support.
• 2012: Leiningen 2-era docs and profiles became central to daily Clojure workflows.
• 2021-11-11: Leiningen 2.9.8 continued the long maintenance line with dependency-resolution and install fixes.
• 2020s: The project marked Codeberg as the canonical repository while keeping GitHub pages and docs visible for existing users.

Related projects

• Related Clojure build and dependency tools include Boot, the official Clojure CLI and deps.edn, tools.build, Maven, Gradle, Clojars, nREPL, REPL-y, and ClojureScript build tooling that often integrated through Leiningen plugins.

Sources

• https://codeberg.org/leiningen/leiningen
• https://github.com/technomancy/leiningen
• https://github.com/technomancy/leiningen/blob/main/NEWS.md
• https://github.com/technomancy/leiningen/blob/main/README.md
• https://leiningen.org/
• https://leiningen.org/profiles
• https://leiningen.org/tutorial