Installing from PyPI

Spec Kit is published to PyPI as specify-cli, maintained by the Spec Kit maintainers. Installing from PyPI is the second supported install route alongside installing from the GitHub source. Use whichever fits your workflow — both provide the same specify CLI.

Note

The PyPI release version tracks the GitHub release tags (for example, PyPI 0.12.11 corresponds to the v0.12.11 tag). specify version is only a local version/runtime sanity check — it reports the installed version but not where the specify executable came from, so it cannot distinguish a PyPI install from a Git install. To confirm the install source, inspect the source metadata your package manager records: pipx list --json reports the exact install specification for each tool, and for uv/pip installs you can check the package's PEP 610 direct_url.json inside its *.dist-info directory (a Git or URL install records the repository/archive URL there, while a plain PyPI index install does not create that file). Note that pip show specify-cli only prints package metadata and will not see uv/pipx-managed environments from the host interpreter.

Install Specify CLI

Use whichever Python tool you already have:

# Using uv (recommended)
uv tool install specify-cli

# Or using pipx
pipx install specify-cli

# Or using pip
pip install specify-cli

If you installed Spec Kit with uv, repeating uv tool install specify-cli keeps the installed version; it does not upgrade it. Compare the version shown by specify version with the latest version on PyPI. If it is older, follow Upgrade below using the same tool you used for the original installation (uv, pipx, or pip) before running specify init. Do not switch installers just to upgrade: that can create a second installation while the old specify remains first on PATH.

Install a specific release

Pin an exact version for reproducible installs (check PyPI or Releases for available versions):

# Using uv
uv tool install specify-cli==0.12.11

# Or using pipx
pipx install specify-cli==0.12.11

# Or using pip
pip install specify-cli==0.12.11

Install from a custom or private package index

Some environments (corporate networks, mirrors, proxies, or artifact feeds) require installing specify-cli from a package index other than the default public PyPI. Each Python tool exposes a way to point at a different index — configure it before running the install commands above. Substitute your own index URL for the placeholder shown here.

# uv — via environment variable (applies to the whole command)
UV_DEFAULT_INDEX=https://your-index.example.com/pypi/simple/ uv tool install specify-cli

# uv — via flag
uv tool install --default-index https://your-index.example.com/pypi/simple/ specify-cli

# pipx — pass a pip argument through
pipx install specify-cli --index-url https://your-index.example.com/pypi/simple/

# pip
pip install specify-cli --index-url https://your-index.example.com/pypi/simple/

Note

The same index configuration applies to pinned installs, upgrades (--force/--upgrade), and one-time usage — set the environment variable or flag on those commands too. If your index requires authentication, follow your tool's documentation and prefer credential environment variables, keyring, or netrc; do not embed secrets in command-line URLs because they can leak through shell history, process listings, or logs. Avoid committing secrets. For fully offline installs, see the air-gapped installation guide.

Verify

specify version

Initialize a project

specify init <PROJECT_NAME> --integration copilot

Upgrade

Upgrade by reinstalling the package through the same tool you used for the original install. If you originally pinned a version, note that uv tool upgrade preserves that pin; to move to the newest PyPI release, use an unpinned install command so you do not keep the existing version pin:

# Using uv
uv tool install --force specify-cli

# Or using pipx
pipx install --force specify-cli

# Or using pip
pip install --upgrade specify-cli

Note

specify self upgrade currently rebuilds uv tool and pipx installs from the GitHub source release URL rather than preserving a PyPI-based installation. If you want to stay on the PyPI route, use the package-manager commands above. A plain pip install specify-cli is treated as an unmanaged install — upgrade it with pip install --upgrade specify-cli. See the Upgrade Guide for details.

Uninstall

# Using uv
uv tool uninstall specify-cli

# Or using pipx
pipx uninstall specify-cli

# Or using pip
pip uninstall specify-cli

Next steps

Head to the Quick Start to initialize your first project.