asdf install should throw error on missing plugin
Author: dakhnodCreated Oct 30, 2025Updated May 21, 2026
Labelsenhancement
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe
I am highly inexperienced with asdf, and ran asdf install with a .tool-versions nearby.
Yet, asdf didn't install anything. Turns out I had no plugins installed, so no tool could be downloaded.
My suggestion is that when running asdf install, asdf should at least give a warning on why a tool from .tool-versions was not installed.
Maybe I completely misunderstood the function of asdf install ....
Describe the proposed solution
My suggestion would be a message like
"nodejs 22.15.1" was not installed because no plugin is available. Try "asdf plugin add nodejs"
"java openjdk-17" was not ...Describe similar asdf features and why they are not sufficient
no idea...
Describe other workarounds you've considered
no idea
Source: asdf-vm/asdf