# dax

> Cross platform shell tools inspired by zx.

Latest version **0.50.1** (published 2026-10-05) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads

## Install

```sh
npm install dax
pnpm add dax
yarn add dax
bun add dax
```

## Health

**Score 65/100 (B)** — status: active.

Positive: esm support; no vulnerabilities; has provenance; recently updated; high maintenance score.

Warnings: low downloads; no types; pre 1.0.

## Facts

| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.50.1 |
| Published | 2026-10-05 |
| First published | 2017-04-30 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | MIT |
| TypeScript types | none |
| Module format | ESM + CommonJS |
| Dependencies | 2 |
| Unpacked size | 426.7 KB |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| Provenance | attested (GitHub Actions) |
| GitHub stars | 1502 |
| Maintainers | dsherret |
| Keywords | shell, scripting, spawn, process |

## Links

- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/dax
- Repository: https://github.com/dsherret/dax
- Homepage: https://github.com/dsherret/dax#readme
- Issues: https://github.com/dsherret/dax/issues
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/dax

## Dependencies (2)

- [undici-types](https://npm.io/package/undici-types.md) ^5.26
- [@dsherret/shell](https://npm.io/package/@dsherret/shell.md) ^0.7.2

## Recent versions

- 0.50.1 (latest) — 2026-10-05
- 0.50.0 — 2026-09-04
- 0.49.0 — 2026-07-11
- 0.48.6 — 2026-07-07
- 0.48.5 — 2026-07-02
- 0.48.4 — 2026-06-30
- 0.48.3 — 2026-06-02
- 0.48.2 — 2026-05-29
- 0.48.1 — 2026-05-28
- 0.48.0 — 2026-05-27
- 0.47.0 — 2026-05-16
- 0.46.1 — 2026-05-04
- 0.46.0 — 2026-05-01
- 0.45.0 — 2026-02-02
- 0.44.2 — 2025-12-31
- … 31 more at https://npm.io/package/dax/versions

## README

# dax

[![JSR](https://jsr.io/badges/@david/dax)](https://jsr.io/@david/dax)
[![npm Version](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/dax.svg?style=flat)](http://www.npmjs.com/package/dax)

<a href="https://dax.land"><img src="src/assets/logo.svg" height="150px" alt="dax logo"></a>

Cross-platform shell tools for Deno and Node.js inspired by [zx](https://github.com/google/zx).

[Docs](https://dax.land)

```ts
import $ from "dax";

// run a command
await $`echo 5`; // outputs: 5

// capture output
const branch = await $`git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`.text();

// make a request
const data = await $.request("https://plugins.dprint.dev/info.json").json();

// prompt for input
const name = await $.prompt("What's your name?");
```

## Differences with zx

1. Cross-platform shell.
   - Makes more code work on Windows.
   - Allows exporting the shell's environment to the current process.
   - Uses [deno_task_shell](https://github.com/denoland/deno_task_shell)'s parser.
   - Has common commands built-in for better Windows support.
1. Minimal globals or global configuration.
   - Only a default instance of `$`, but it's not mandatory to use this.
1. No custom CLI.
1. Good for application code in addition to use as a shell script replacement.
1. Named after my cat.

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_Source: https://npm.io/package/dax · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._