What causes "package manager '{}' does not support pruning" in jdx/mise?

Prune only managers implemented as package plugins (those with package hook Lua files).

package manager ' ' does not support pruning

Error message

package manager '{}' does not support pruning

What it means

`mise bootstrap packages prune` only works for plugin-based package managers (vfox-style plugins with package hooks). `run_plugin` looks the manager up in the discovered manager list and, if it exists but `is_plugin()` is false (e.g. a built-in manager like brew), pruning is unsupported and mise throws this error.

Solutions

Prune only managers implemented as package plugins (those with package hook Lua files).
For brew, remove packages via `brew uninstall` or by removing them from `[bootstrap.packages]` and running the install/sync flow instead of prune.
Check `mise bootstrap packages --help` / available managers to see which support pruning.

Example fix

// before
$ mise bootstrap packages prune --manager brew
error: package manager 'brew' does not support pruning

// after
$ brew autoremove  # or manage removal via mise bootstrap packages install sync

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

# Only attempt prune for plugin-based managers
case "$MANAGER" in
  brew|cargo|npm) echo "manager $MANAGER does not support prune"; exit 1 ;;
esac
mise bootstrap packages prune --manager "$MANAGER"

Try / catch

try {
  await run("mise", ["bootstrap","packages","prune","--manager", m]);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message.includes("does not support pruning")) {
    // fall back to the manager's native removal command
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

Check which bootstrap managers are plugin-based before scripting prune.
Use manager-native cleanup (e.g. brew autoremove) for non-plugin managers.
Keep import and prune manager choices distinct — import's brew default does not imply prune support.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `mise bootstrap packages prune --manager brew` (or another non-plugin manager name): the manager is known to mise but is not a package plugin, so there is no prune implementation.

Common situations: Assuming prune works uniformly across all bootstrap package managers; using brew as the manager for prune because import uses brew by default.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jdx/mise@533346cc37 (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ac82d37d22745918. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/cli/system/prune.rs:76

            bail!(
                "manager '{}' is excluded by the system_packages.managers setting",
                self.manager
            );
        }
        match self.manager.as_str() {
            "brew" => self.run_brew().await,
            "brew-cask" => self.run_brew_cask().await,
            _ => self.run_plugin().await,
        }
    }

    async fn run_plugin(self) -> Result<()> {
        let discovered = system::packages::all_managers()
            .into_iter()
            .find(|manager| manager.name() == self.manager)
            .ok_or_else(|| eyre::eyre!("unknown bootstrap package manager '{}'", self.manager))?;
        if !discovered.is_plugin() {
            bail!(
                "package manager '{}' does not support pruning",
                self.manager
            );
        }
        if let Some(reason) = discovered.unavailable_reason_async().await {
            bail!("{} is not available: {reason}", self.manager);
        }
        let manager = PackagePluginManager::new(self.manager.clone())?;
        let config = Config::get().await?;
        let configured = system::package_requests_for_manager_from_config_and_tracked_config_files(
            &config,
            &self.manager,
        )
        .await?;
        let plan = manager.prune_plan(&configured).await?;
        if plan.is_empty() {
            if !self.dry_run {
                manager.apply_prune_plan(&plan).await?;

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