Install zigmod with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• zigmod

Project history

The zigmod GitHub repository was created in November 2020 and describes itself simply as a package manager for Zig. Early releases began immediately, with GitHub release data showing v2-88c035e published on 2020-11-09 and rapid follow-up releases in the same month.

The project's documentation presents zigmod.yml as the main manifest read by Zigmod, with zig.mod as a valid legacy alternative. That detail captures its place in Zig history: it used its own package description format before the official Zig package manager standardized on build.zig.zon.

Zigmod continued to track newer Zig compilers; the README currently says it is built with Zig 0.16.0 and points users to releases, docs, and a tutorial. It also had CI ecosystem support through the Setup Zigmod GitHub Action.

Adoption history

Adoption was niche but important inside the early Zig ecosystem. Before Zig 0.11 introduced the official package manager, a Zig developer wanting dependencies often had to choose between vendoring source, git submodules, custom build.zig logic, or tools such as zigmod.

After Zig 0.11 debuted official package management, zigmod's role changed from trailblazer to compatibility and legacy tooling. It remains useful context for packages that still contain zig.mod or zigmod.yml, and for understanding why older Zig projects do not always look like modern build.zig.zon projects.

How it is used

Typical usage is project-local dependency management: declare packages in zigmod.yml or zig.mod, let zigmod resolve and fetch them, and integrate the resulting dependency graph into Zig builds. The documentation and tutorial are the practical entry points.

For package maintainers, zigmod is mostly a historical signal now: if an upstream Zig project has zigmod files, the recipe may need an older toolchain path or a migration to build.zig.zon rather than assuming current Zig package-manager conventions.

Why package nerds care

Zigmod is package-manager archaeology from a young language ecosystem. It shows the period where community tools experimented with dependency metadata and fetching before the language project made package management part of zig itself.

It also explains a common package-nerd annoyance in Zig: old projects may carry zig.mod, zigmod.yml, custom package managers, or vendored dependencies, while newer projects expect build.zig.zon. That split affects reproducibility and formula maintenance.

Timeline

• 2020-11-09: nektro/zigmod is created on GitHub and an early v2 release is published.
• 2021: Zigmod appears in community discussion as a way to avoid git submodules for Zig dependencies.
• 2023-08-04: Zig 0.11.0 debuts the official package manager, changing zigmod's role in the ecosystem.
• 2026: Zigmod documentation still describes zigmod.yml as the main manifest and zig.mod as a legacy alternative.

Related projects

• Zig's official package manager, introduced in Zig 0.11, is the modern upstream package-management path.
• build.zig.zon is the official Zig package metadata file that displaced many earlier third-party conventions.
• Setup Zigmod is a GitHub Action for using Zigmod in Zig workflows.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/nektro/zigmod
• https://api.github.com/repos/nektro/zigmod/releases?per_page=100&page=2
• https://github.com/marketplace/actions/setup-zigmod
• https://github.com/nektro/zigmod
• https://nektro.github.io/zigmod/
• https://nektro.github.io/zigmod/zig.mod.html
• https://ziglang.org/download/0.11.0/release-notes.html