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Boss – Dependency Manager for Delphi and Lazarus

Getting Started

Boss is an open source dependency manager inspired by npm for projects developed in Delphi and Lazarus. We have a Getting Started article to help you get started with Boss.

Download setup
Just type boss in the terminal
(Optional) Install a Boss Delphi IDE complement

Or you can use the following steps:

Download the latest version of the Boss
Extract the files to a folder
Add the folder to the system path
Run the command boss in the terminal

Initialize a Project

Initialize a new project and create a boss.json file. Add -q or --quiet to skip interactive prompts and use default values.

boss init
boss init -q
boss init --quiet

Install Dependencies

Install one or more dependencies with real-time progress tracking:

boss install

Progress Tracking: Boss displays progress for each dependency being installed:

⏳ horse Waiting...
🧬 dataset-serialize Cloning...
🔍 jhonson Checking...
🔥 redis-client Installing...
📦 boss-core Installed

The dependency name is case insensitive. For example, boss install horse is the same as boss install HORSE.

boss install horse                          # HashLoad organization on GitHub
boss install fake/horse                     # Fake organization on GitHub
boss install gitlab.com/fake/horse          # Fake organization on GitLab
boss install https://gitlab.com/fake/horse  # Full URL

You can also specify the compiler version and platform:

boss install --compiler=37.0 --platform=Win64

Aliases: i, add

Remove Dependencies

Remove a dependency from the project:

boss uninstall

Aliases: remove, rm, r, un, unlink

Update Dependencies

Update all installed dependencies to their latest compatible versions:

boss update

Aliases: up

Upgrade Boss CLI

Upgrade the Boss CLI to the latest version. Add --dev to upgrade to the latest pre-release:

boss upgrade
boss upgrade --dev

List Dependencies

List all project dependencies in a tree format. Add -v to show version information:

boss dependencies
boss dependencies -v

Aliases: dep, ls, list, ll, la, dependency

Run Scripts

Execute a custom script defined in your boss.json file. Scripts are defined in the scripts section:

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "msbuild MyProject.dproj",
    "test": "MyProject.exe --test",
    "clean": "del /s *.dcu"
  }
}

boss run build
boss run test
boss run clean

Authentication

boss login
boss login -u UserName -p Password
boss login -s -k PrivateKey -p PassPhrase   # SSH authentication

Aliases: adduser, add-user

Remove saved credentials for a repository:

boss logout

Version

Show the Boss CLI version:

boss version
boss v
boss -v
boss --version

Aliases: v

Global Installation

Use global environment for installation. Packages installed globally are available system-wide:

boss install -g
boss --global install

Debug Mode

Enable debug mode to see detailed output:

boss install --debug
boss -d install

Help

Show help for any command:

boss --help
boss --help <command>

Cache Management

Manage the Boss cache. Remove all cached modules to free up disk space:

boss config cache rm

Aliases: purge, clean

Delphi Version Configuration

You can configure which Delphi version BOSS should use for compilation. This is useful when you have multiple Delphi versions installed.

Lists all detected Delphi installations (32-bit and 64-bit) with their indexes:

boss config delphi list

Selects a specific Delphi version to use globally. You can use the index from the list command, the version number, or the version with architecture:

boss config delphi use <index>
boss config delphi use <version>
boss config delphi use <version-architecture>

Example:

boss config delphi use 0
boss config delphi use 37.0
boss config delphi use 37.0-Win64

Git Client Configuration

You can configure which Git client BOSS should use:

embedded: Uses the built-in go-git client (default).
native: Uses the system's installed git client (git.exe). Using native is recommended on Windows if you need support for core.autocrlf (automatic line ending conversion).

boss config git mode native
boss config git mode embedded

Shallow Cloning

You can enable shallow cloning to significantly speed up dependency downloads. Shallow clones only fetch the latest commit without the full git history, reducing download size dramatically (e.g., from 127 MB to < 1 MB):

boss config shallow true
boss config shallow false

boss.json Configuration

The boss.json file is the configuration file for your project. It defines the project metadata, dependencies, scripts, and toolchain settings.

Fields

name (required): Package name. Must be unique if publishing.
```
"name": "my-awesome-library"
```
description (optional): A brief description of your project.
```
"description": "REST API framework for Delphi"
```
version (required): Package version following semantic versioning.
```
"version": "1.2.3"
```
homepage (optional): Project website or repository URL.
```
"homepage": "https://github.com/myuser/my-project"
```
mainsrc (optional): Main source directory path.
```
"mainsrc": "src/"
```
browsingpath (optional): Additional paths for IDE browsing (semicolon-separated).
```
"browsingpath": "src/;src/controllers/;src/models/"
```
projects (optional): List of Delphi project files (.dproj) to compile.
```
"projects": [
  "MyProject.dproj",
  "MyLibrary.dproj"
]
```
Note: If not specified, Boss won't compile the package but will still manage dependencies.
dependencies (optional): Map of package dependencies with version constraints.
```
"dependencies": {
  "github.com/HashLoad/horse": "^3.0.0",
  "dataset-serialize": "~2.1.0",
  "jhonson": "*"
}
```
Supported version formats:
- Exact version: "1.0.0"
- Caret (minor updates): "^1.0.0" (allows 1.x.x, but not 2.x.x)
- Tilde (patch updates): "~1.0.0" (allows 1.0.x, but not 1.1.x)
- Wildcard (any): "*" or "x"
- Range: ">=1.0.0 <2.0.0"

scripts (optional): Map of script names to commands.

"scripts": {
  "build": "msbuild MyProject.dproj /p:Config=Release",
  "test": "dunitx-console.exe MyProject.exe",
  "clean": "del /s *.dcu *.exe",
  "deploy": "xcopy /s /y bin\\*.exe deploy\\"
}

Execute with:

boss run build
boss run test

engines (optional): Specify minimum compiler/platform requirements.
```
"engines": {
  "compiler": ">=35.0",
  "platforms": ["Win32", "Win64", "Linux64"]
}
```
- compiler: Minimum compiler version
- platforms: Supported target platforms
toolchain (optional): Specify the exact toolchain to use for this project.
```
"toolchain": {
  "compiler": "37.0",
  "platform": "Win64",
  "path": "C:\\Program Files\\Embarcadero\\Studio\\37.0",
  "strict": true
}
```
- compiler: Required compiler version
- platform: Target platform ("Win32", "Win64", "Linux64", etc.)
- path: Explicit path to the compiler (optional)
- strict: If true, fails if the exact version is not found (default: false)

Minimal Valid boss.json

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "version": "1.0.0"
}

Example Configurations

Use boss init to create a new boss.json interactively:

boss init

Or use quiet mode for defaults:

boss init -q

{
  "name": "my-delphi-library",
  "description": "Utilities for Delphi applications",
  "version": "2.1.0",
  "homepage": "https://github.com/myuser/my-library",
  "mainsrc": "src/",
  "projects": [
    "MyLibrary.dproj"
  ],
  "dependencies": {
    "github.com/HashLoad/horse": "^3.0.0"
  }
}

{
  "name": "my-app",
  "description": "My awesome Delphi application",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "projects": [
    "MyApp.dproj"
  ],
  "dependencies": {
    "github.com/HashLoad/horse": "^3.0.0"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "build": "msbuild MyApp.dproj /p:Config=Release",
    "run": "bin\\MyApp.exe",
    "test": "dunitx-console.exe bin\\MyAppTests.exe"
  },
  "toolchain": {
    "compiler": "37.0",
    "platform": "Win32"
  }
}

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