Hi, it’s probably a FAQ but why does pants need to be

./pants

and not just

pants

? Why can’t it be installed globally (like with

pipx install pants

)` ?

The shim script bootstraps itself based on the version in

pants.toml

. that way everyone gets a consistent version, as semantics and support varies wildly from version to version (we're busy folks). You could install a specific version, and it might work, but you're certainly in for "fun"

Although what Josh says is true it does not preclude a globally installed pants binary. It could be doing the same checking and bootstrapping / re-executing. So, in short, there is no good reason. I'm actively involved in re-working how Pants is distributed right now which is entwined with all this.