Packaging an AI-Assisted Program with pixi and rattler-build

Previously, I had tried modifying and adding recipes to conda channels. This time, I want to package my DevSSH and upload it to my own channel. I decided to try building a conda package myself.

Why choose pixi and rattler-build?

This was actually a coincidence… I originally wanted to register an Anaconda account to use conda-build, but their website was acting up and I couldn’t complete the registration. So I switched directly to prefix.dev, which gave me a chance to learn about newer tools.

Introduction to rattler-build

rattler-build is a next-generation conda package builder developed by the team behind pixi. Written in Rust, it naturally offers faster build speeds. It is somewhat compatible with conda-forge’s build system and has a certain level of integration with pixi.

Configuring pixi.toml

pixi‘s core functionality is to set up development environments, but it can also be used to configure build environments for software packages. To do this, you need to use the package keyword and enable the experimental pixi-build feature within the [workspace] section.

[workspace]
authors = ["Sylens Wong <qiumin14@163.com>"]
channels = ["conda-forge"]
name = "DevSSH"
platforms = ["linux-aarch64", "linux-64"]
version = "0.1.1"
preview = ["pixi-build"] # Need to enable pixi-build

[tasks]
build = {cmd = "go build -o bin/devssh cmd/devssh/main.go", cwd = "./"}

[activation.env]
CGO_ENABLED = "0"

[dependencies]
go = ">=1.25.4,<2"

# Below is the configuration for building the package
[package]
name = "DevSSH"
version = "0.1.1"

[package.build.backend]
name = "pixi-build-rattler-build" # Building a Go program, no specialized builder, so use rattler-build
version = "0.3.*"

Writing a rattler-build recipe

rattler-build uses YAML‑format recipe files to define how a package is built. It is compatible with recipes from conda-build, though it does not support all conda-build recipe syntax.

Here is the recipe I wrote for DevSSH:

package:
  name: devssh
  version: 0.1.1

source:
  path: .
  use_gitignore: true 

build:
  number: 0
  script: |
    # Build the binary
    go build -o "$PREFIX/bin/devssh" cmd/devssh/main.go

requirements:
  build:
    - ${{ compiler('go-nocgo') }} # My program is pure Go with no C dependencies, so choose the nocgo compiler
    - patchelf  # Required for post‑processing

about:
  homepage: https://github.com/SilenWang/DevSSH
  license: MPL-2.0
  license_file: LICENSE
  summary: 'A CLI tool to quickly set up remote development tools over SSH'
  description: |
    A CLI tool to quickly set up remote development tools over SSH
  repository: https://github.com/SilenWang/DevSSH

Building and uploading the package

1. Local build

If the configuration files are set up correctly, running the build command should produce a conda‑format package.

# Build with pixi
pixi build

# Build for a specific target platform
pixi build -t linux-64

If you encounter issues, you can ask AI step by step. However, note that rattler-build is not yet mainstream, so answers you get may often be based on conda-build. You’ll need to cross‑check with the documentation and experiment.

2. Setting up a prefix.dev account and uploading

Before uploading, you need to log in, create a channel under your account, and set up an API_TOKEN.

1 2	# Set the API token pixi auth login --token YOUR_API_TOKEN prefix.dev

Once configured, you can directly upload the built package. With a good internet connection, it completes quickly.

1	pixi upload prefix devssh-0.1.1-hb0f4dca_0.conda -c sylens

3. Installing the package via the channel

You can install it with either pixi or conda.

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pixi global install -c https://prefix.dev/sylens devssh

conda install -c https://prefix.dev/sylens devssh