🔨 Anvil

Forge your environment — A fast, lightweight package manager for VFX/Animation pipelines.

Think Rez, but Rust-powered and simpler.

Features

• YAML-based package definitions — Simple, readable, version-controlled
• Environment resolution — Automatic dependency resolution with version constraints
• DCC launcher — Launch Maya, Houdini, Blender, Nuke with correct environment
• Fast — Written in Rust, resolves in milliseconds
• Cross-platform — Windows, Linux, macOS

Installation

cargo install anvil-pckm

Quick Start

1. Create a package repository

mkdir ~/pipeline-packages
cd ~/pipeline-packages

# Create a package definition
mkdir -p maya/2024
cat > maya/2024/package.yaml << 'EOF'
name: maya
version: "2024"
description: Autodesk Maya 2024

requires:
  - python-3.10

environment:
  MAYA_VERSION: "2024"
  PATH: /usr/autodesk/maya2024/bin:${PATH}
  PYTHONPATH: ${PACKAGE_ROOT}/scripts:${PYTHONPATH}

commands:
  maya: maya
  mayapy: mayapy
EOF

2. Configure anvil

cat > ~/.anvil.yaml << 'EOF'
package_paths:
  - ~/pipeline-packages
  - /shared/packages

default_shell: bash
EOF

3. Use it

# Resolve and print environment
anvil env maya-2024

# Launch Maya with resolved environment  
anvil run maya-2024 -- maya

# Launch with multiple packages
anvil run maya-2024 arnold-7.2 studio-tools -- maya

# Interactive shell with packages
anvil shell maya-2024 arnold-7.2

Package Definition

Packages are defined in YAML:

# ~/packages/arnold/7.2/package.yaml
name: arnold
version: "7.2"
description: Arnold renderer for Maya

requires:
  - maya-2024+  # Maya 2024 or higher
  
variants:
  - platform: linux
    requires:
      - gcc-11
  - platform: windows
    requires:
      - msvc-2022

environment:
  ARNOLD_VERSION: ${VERSION}
  MTOA_PATH: ${PACKAGE_ROOT}
  MAYA_RENDER_DESC_PATH: ${PACKAGE_ROOT}/renderDesc
  
commands:
  kick: ${PACKAGE_ROOT}/bin/kick

Version Constraints

requires:
  - maya-2024        # Exactly 2024
  - maya-2024+       # 2024 or higher
  - maya-2024..2025  # 2024 to 2025 (inclusive)
  - python-3.10|3.11 # 3.10 or 3.11

Commands

anvil env

Resolve packages and print environment variables.

# Print resolved environment
anvil env maya-2024 arnold-7.2

# Export format for shell
anvil env maya-2024 --export

# JSON output
anvil env maya-2024 --json

anvil run

Run a command with resolved environment.

# Run Maya
anvil run maya-2024 -- maya -file scene.ma

# Run with specific packages
anvil run maya-2024 arnold-7.2 yeti-4.0 -- maya

# Pass environment variables
anvil run maya-2024 -e MAYA_DEBUG=1 -- maya

anvil shell

Start an interactive shell with resolved environment.

# Bash shell with packages
anvil shell maya-2024 arnold-7.2

# Specific shell
anvil shell maya-2024 --shell zsh

anvil list

List available packages.

# List all packages
anvil list

# List versions of a package
anvil list maya

# Show package details
anvil info maya-2024

anvil validate

Validate package definitions.

# Validate all packages
anvil validate

# Validate specific package
anvil validate maya-2024

Configuration

Global config at ~/.anvil.yaml:

# Package search paths
package_paths:
  - ~/packages
  - /studio/packages
  - ${STUDIO_ROOT}/packages

# Default shell for `anvil shell`
default_shell: bash

# Platform overrides
platform:
  linux:
    package_paths:
      - /mnt/packages
  windows:
    package_paths:
      - P:/packages

# Aliases for common package sets
aliases:
  maya-anim: [maya-2024, animbot-2.0, studio-tools]
  maya-light: [maya-2024, arnold-7.2, light-tools]

Documentation

• Blender Setup Guide — Using anvil with Blender and custom addons
• Examples — Sample packages and configuration

Development

# Build
cargo build --release

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run with logging
RUST_LOG=debug cargo run -- env maya-2024

# Format
cargo fmt

# Lint
cargo clippy

Why not Rez?

Rez is great, but:

1. Complexity — Rez has many features we don't need
2. Python dependency — Rez requires Python; this is a single binary
3. Speed — Rust is faster for environment resolution
4. Simplicity — YAML packages are easier than Python packages

Pipeline-config is designed for smaller studios or simpler setups where Rez is overkill.

License

MIT © Alejandro Cabrera