Installation

mbx uses your existing Rust toolchain. Install Cargo and rustc before running a build; mbx doctor checks which tools are active.

mise

mise use --global --tool-option mr_boxington=true rust mr-boxington

Requires mise 2026.9.2 or newer. This installs Rust and mbx and enables Cargo wrapping through mise; no mbx setup postinstall hook is needed. --tool-option applies to the following tool, so keep it before rust. Drop --global to enable it only in the current project. Keep an existing Rust version pin by editing its tool entry.

Use mise exec -- cargo build, or open a shell with mise activation or shims on PATH and follow Verify plain Cargo. The Rust option does not install a standalone mbx shim or configure rust-analyzer; see editor setup if you need that too.

Older mise versions

With mise 2026.8.16 through 2026.9.1:

mise use --global --postinstall "mbx setup --yes" mr-boxington

This runs standalone setup and writes an explicit [wrappers.cargo] entry. Versions older than 2026.8.16 install the standalone shim and print an upgrade warning instead of editing mise configuration.

Cargo

cargo install mbx --locked
mbx --version

You can now run mbx build in a Rust workspace. To make plain cargo commands use mbx too, run mbx setup.

Release archives

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
archive=mbx-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
release=https://github.com/jdx/mr-boxington/releases/latest/download
curl -fsSLO "$release/$archive" &&
  curl -fsSLO "$release/SHA256SUMS" &&
  grep "  $archive$" SHA256SUMS | sha256sum --check --strict - &&
  tar -xzf "$archive" -C ~/.local/bin

Every release publishes its archives and SHA256SUMS on GitHub Releases. Linux also has -musl archives for a static binary that does not depend on a host glibc.

After extracting an archive, put its directory on PATH, then run mbx --version and mbx doctor. Run mbx setup to enable automatic Cargo wrapping.

Supported platforms

Release binaries cover:

• Linux x86-64 and ARM64 (GNU and static musl builds)
• macOS on Apple Silicon
• Windows x86-64 and ARM64

Other platforms with a Rust toolchain can build from source with cargo install mbx --locked. mbx wraps whichever Cargo and rustc are active, including rustup-managed toolchains. mbx doctor reports the pair it found.

Reflinked output restoration needs a filesystem with copy-on-write file cloning: APFS on macOS, btrfs or XFS on Linux, ReFS (Dev Drive) on Windows. mbx probes the cache and target locations and copies bytes where cloning is unavailable. Caching still works on ext4 or NTFS but spends the disk twice.

Windows

Windows is a supported release platform. The differences from Linux and macOS:

• Reflinks need ReFS, which usually means a Dev Drive; on NTFS mbx copies bytes instead.
• The managed target link needs Developer Mode or a privileged process; where Windows refuses to create it, Cargo keeps its ordinary target directory. See managed target directories.
• rustc compilations and native host links are cached; native-link keys bind the selected MSVC/LLVM linker, Windows SDK, and CRT. See limits.
• MSVC C and C++ compiles from build scripts and mbx exec are cached through a conservative cl.exe adapter. See limits.

Upgrade or uninstall

Upgrade using the same installation method: update the mise version, rerun cargo install mbx --locked, or replace the binary with a verified release archive. The stable Cargo shim follows upgrades; setup does not need to run again.

Before removing the executable, disable mr_boxington in each Rust tool entry where you enabled it. If you also ran standalone setup, run mbx setup --uninstall in each scope you enabled. See Remove automatic wrapping. Cached work is disposable; use cache management to inspect and reclaim it.

Continue with your first build.