#7017·pixi

PIXI_CACHE_CONDA_PACKAGES_DIR is not respected

Author: psobolewskiPhDCreated Sep 16, 2026Updated Sep 16, 2026

Labelsbug

Checks

I have checked that this issue has not already been reported.
I have confirmed this bug exists on the latest version of pixi, using pixi --version.

Reproducible example

Commands I ran and their output:

bash

export PIXI_CACHE_CONDA_PACKAGES_DIR="/tmp/foo3"
pixi init
pixi add cowpy
pixi run cowpy hi

pixi.toml/pyproject.toml file that reproduces my issue:

toml

[workspace]
authors = ["Peter Sobolewski <[email protected]>"]
channels = ["conda-forge"]
name = "test-cache"
platforms = ["osx-arm64"]
version = "0.1.0"

[tasks]

[dependencies]
python = ">=3.14.7,<3.15"
cowpy = ">=1.1.5,<2"

pixi info output:

System
------------
       Pixi version: 0.80.0
        TLS backend: rustls
           Platform: osx-arm64
   Virtual packages: __unix=0=0
                   : __osx=26.6.2=0
                   : __archspec=1=m1
          Cache dir: /tmp/foo
       Auth storage: /Users/sobolp/.rattler/credentials.json
   Config locations: No config files found

Global
------------
            Bin dir: /Users/sobolp/.pixi/bin
    Environment dir: /Users/sobolp/.pixi/envs
       Manifest dir: /Users/sobolp/.pixi/manifests/pixi-global.toml

Workspace
------------
               Name: test-cache2
            Version: 0.1.0
      Manifest file: /Users/sobolp/Documents/dev/test-cache2/pixi.toml
       Last updated: 16-09-2026 09:32:31

Environments
------------
        Environment: default
           Features: default
           Channels: conda-forge
   Dependency count: 1
       Dependencies: cowpy
   Target platforms: osx-arm64
  Resolved platform: osx-arm64 (archspec=m1, macos=13.0, __unix)
   Minimum platform: osx-arm64 (__osx >=11.0, __unix)
    Prefix location: /Users/sobolp/Documents/dev/test-cache2/.pixi/envs/default

Other files (e.g. script files, source files, etc.):

Issue description

Note: I'm not sure if this has the same root cause as the related residual issue in: https://github.com/prefix-dev/pixi/issues/6340#issuecomment-4791910150

If I set PIXI_CACHE_CONDA_PACKAGES_DIR, the pkgs location is in either the default pixi location (in home directory) or at PIXI_CACHE_DIR if I set that.

Expected behavior

I expect that with PIXI_CACHE_CONDA_PACKAGES_DIR set, that location to be used for pkgs based on the docs here: https://pixi.prefix.dev/v0.81.0/reference/pixi_configuration/#cache The PIXI_CACHE_<KIND>_DIR is supposed to take precedence, which does work for the other ones i tested.

Source: prefix-dev/pixi

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