Became a GitHub Sponsor of aquaproj — Supporting the aqua-registry Maintainers Behind My Beloved mise
I became a GitHub Sponsor of aquaproj.
aquaproj is the team behind aqua, a declarative version manager for command-line tools, and aqua-registry, the catalog of installable tools that powers it.
The Trigger — A Call from the aquaproj Account
The trigger was a post from the aquaproj account @aquaclivm:
We spend a lot of time maintaining aqua and aqua-registry every day.
— aquaclivm (@aquaclivm) May 11, 2026
Today, aqua-registry is used not only by aqua, but also by tools like mise and docker agent.
If these projects help you, please consider supporting us via GitHub Sponsors.
aqua-registry has quietly evolved from “the catalog for aqua” into a shared resource that other toolchains lean on, including mise, which I use daily, and the Docker agent. Every new OSS release means another registration PR to triage, another version bump to track, another checksum to verify. From the consumer’s seat it shows up as a one-line “mise install worked” or “aqua i worked” experience, but that one line is propped up by a lot of careful, unsexy work behind the scenes. The announcement reminded me to actually notice that.
The fact that mise uses aqua-registry under the hood is documented explicitly in the mise backends documentation:
aqua is the ideal backend to use for new tools since they don’t require plugins, they work on windows, they offer security features in addition to checksums.
In other words, part of what makes mise feel so good is the quiet, sustained work the aquaproj team puts into the registry.
Gratitude to aquaproj
aquaproj delivers value at multiple layers in the command-line-tool management space:
- aqua: A declarative, fast CLI version manager. You list tools in
aqua.yamland runaqua ito install them in parallel. - aqua-registry: A catalog covering thousands of CLI tools with checksum-verified install recipes. New tools and version bumps land continuously.
- GitHub Actions integration: An action that reproduces the same toolchain in CI.
How to Sponsor via GitHub Sponsors
You can sponsor aquaproj through GitHub Sponsors:
🔗 Sponsor @aquaproj on GitHub Sponsors
Both recurring monthly support and one-time donations are accepted, with tiers that are very approachable for individual sponsors.
Summary
There is a long tail of OSS that I benefit from daily without consciously noticing. aquaproj turned out to be one of those.
A pleasant mise experience stands on top of an actively maintained aqua-registry. Realizing that link explicitly was a useful inventory check for me.
I plan to keep supporting the OSS projects I rely on, even with small amounts, on an ongoing basis. If a tool you use every day is on GitHub Sponsors, please go take a look.
That’s all from the Gemba, reporting on becoming a GitHub Sponsor of aquaproj.