#2202·asdf

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