nix-community/comma
Comma runs software without installing it. [maintainers=@Artturin,@burke,@DavHau] observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
89/100
- Activity 89
- Release rhythm 83
- Longevity 100
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 5
- age_days: 2318
- days_rel: 114
- days_push: 68
- n_releases_24m: 10
Adoption not part of the score
1749 stars · 63 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded
Comma is a small Rust CLI that lets you run any command from nixpkgs without installing it, by prefixing the command with a comma (e.g. `, cowsay neato`). It wraps `nix shell -c` together with `nix-index` to locate and execute packages on demand, with optional caching of choices and paths for speed.
Use cases
- run a command without installing it
- try out a package temporarily with nix
- run one-off tools from nixpkgs
- avoid polluting my system with rarely used packages
- quickly execute a program I don't have installed
- use nix-index to find and run commands
When to choose
- you use Nix or NixOS and want ad-hoc execution of any nixpkgs package
- you want to try tools without adding them to your profile
- you want fast repeated runs via path caching
When to avoid
- you don't use the Nix package manager
- you need the absolute latest package version and can't tolerate cached paths
- you're on a system without nix-index database access
Facets
cli-tool · maturity active
cli package-manager developer-tools developer-tools cli nix nixos nix-shell nix-index run-without-install rust command-line automation linux macos
1 source
- readme: https://github.com/nix-community/comma · fetched 2026-08-28 · 46d3e703d4b0
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| nix-community/comma | main | 89 |
For agents
markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="nix-community/comma")
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem