Shards
The facts below are what the maker publishes about Shards, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
The facts
Each one read from Shards's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Authorship
- The shard.yml documentation credits Julien Portalier and the Crystal project as authors.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Build behavior
- The build command ensures dependencies are installed and delegates build options to crystal build.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Build requirements
- The repository lists Crystal and libyaml as requirements for compiling Shards.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Commands
- The documented commands include build, check, init, install, list, prune, update, and version.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Dependency installation
- The `shards install` command installs dependencies and records them in shard.lock for reproducible installations across computers.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Dependency resolution
- Yeschecked 21 Sep 2026
- Dependency sources
- The README shows dependencies fetched from Git repositories, including GitHub repositories.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Development dependencies
- Development dependencies are installed for the project itself and are not installed when its library is used as another project's dependency.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Discovery model
- The Crystal community page describes Shards as a decentralized dependency system with no central registry.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Distribution
- Shards is usually distributed with Crystal, and a separate shards package may be available for a user's system.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Install options
- Shards is usually distributed with Crystal, including through Homebrew and Debian packages; source tarballs can also be built and installed.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- The project README describes its use for Crystal applications and libraries.checked 11 Oct 2026
- License
- The repository states that Shards is licensed under Apache License, Version 2.0.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Lockfile
- shards install writes locked dependency versions to shard.lock so subsequent installs can use the same versions across computers.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Lockfile support
- Yeschecked 21 Sep 2026
- Overrides
- A shard.override.yml file can override dependency sources and version restrictions, and its location can be configured with SHARDS_OVERRIDE.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Package formats
- Crystal shards defined in shard.ymlchecked 21 Sep 2026
- Postinstall scripts
- A shard can define a postinstall shell command that runs when the dependency is installed or upgraded.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Project files
- Crystal applications and libraries are expected to have a shard.yml file at their root to describe dependencies.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Project type
- The GitHub repository is public and licensed under Apache-2.0.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Project users
- Crystal applications and libraries use a shard.yml file to describe project metadata and dependencies.checked 11 Oct 2026
Money
- Free plan
- Yeschecked 21 Sep 2026
Where it runs
- Platform notes
- The installation instructions mention Debian or Ubuntu Linux and Mac OS X, and say a shards package may be available for a user's system.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Platforms
- The Crystal install page lists Shards in package instructions for Linux, macOS, Windows tooling, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD.checked 11 Oct 2026
