ASDF Runtime Version Updater

Update language runtime versions consistently across your project.

Workflow

1. Parse current versions - Read .tool-versions to get current runtime versions
2. Find latest version - Run asdf latest <runtime> to get the latest available version
3. Update .tool-versions - Update the version in .tool-versions
4. Install new version - Run asdf install to install the runtime
5. Find version references - Search for files referencing the old version
6. Update all references - Update versions consistently across all files
7. Verify project - Install deps, build, format check, and run tests

Version Lookup

# Get latest version for a runtime
asdf latest nodejs      # e.g., 22.13.1
asdf latest python      # e.g., 3.13.2
asdf latest ruby        # e.g., 3.4.2
asdf latest elixir      # e.g., 1.19.5-otp-28
asdf latest erlang      # e.g., 28.3.1

File Patterns

.tool-versions Format

nodejs 22.13.1
python 3.13.2
ruby 3.4.2
elixir 1.19.5-otp-28
erlang 28.3.1

Dockerfile Patterns

# Node.js
FROM node:22.13.1-alpine
FROM node:22-alpine

# Python
FROM python:3.13.2-slim
FROM python:3.13-slim

# Ruby
FROM ruby:3.4.2-alpine

# Elixir (often uses erlang base)
FROM elixir:1.19.5-otp-28
FROM hexpm/elixir:1.19.5-erlang-28.3.1-alpine-3.21.0

Dockerfile ARG Patterns

Some Dockerfiles use ARG for version configuration:

ARG ELIXIR_VERSION=1.19.5
ARG OTP_VERSION=28.3.1
ARG DEBIAN_VERSION=trixie-20260112-slim

ARG BUILDER_IMAGE="docker.io/hexpm/elixir:${ELIXIR_VERSION}-erlang-${OTP_VERSION}-debian-${DEBIAN_VERSION}"

Search for these patterns:

grep -E "^ARG\s+(ELIXIR|OTP|ERLANG|NODE|PYTHON|RUBY)_VERSION=" Dockerfile*

GitHub Workflows (.github/workflows/*.yml)

# Node.js
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '22.13.1'
    node-version-file: '.tool-versions'

# Python
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.13.2'

# Ruby
- uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
  with:
    ruby-version: '3.4.2'

# Elixir
- uses: erlef/setup-beam@v1
  with:
    elixir-version: '1.19.5'
    otp-version: '28.0'

GitHub Workflow Job Containers

Jobs can also specify container images directly:

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container:
      image: hexpm/elixir:1.19.5-erlang-28.3.1-alpine-3.23.3
    
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container: node:22.13.1-alpine

Search for these patterns:

grep -rE "^\s*(image:|container:)" .github/workflows/

Other Version Files

Runtime	Files
Node.js	.nvmrc, .node-version, package.json (engines, @types/node)
Python	.python-version, pyproject.toml, setup.py
Ruby	.ruby-version, Gemfile

Search Patterns

Use these patterns to find version references:

# Find version references in project
grep -r "22.13.1" .             # Specific version
grep -rE "node[:-]?22" .         # Node.js major version patterns
grep -rE "python[:-]?3\.13" .    # Python minor version patterns

Example Update

Before (.tool-versions):

elixir 1.18.0-otp-27
erlang 27.2.4

Steps:

# Check latest versions
asdf latest elixir  # 1.19.5-otp-28
asdf latest erlang  # 28.3.1

# Update .tool-versions, then:
asdf install

After (.tool-versions):

elixir 1.19.5-otp-28
erlang 28.3.1

Then update all other files (Dockerfile, GitHub workflows, etc.) to match.

Verification

After updating versions, verify the project still works:

Elixir/Phoenix

mix deps.clean --all
mix deps.get
mix compile --warnings-as-errors
mix format --check-formatted
mix test

Node.js

npm install
npm run build
npm run lint
npm test

Python

pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m build
ruff check .
pytest

Ruby

bundle install
bundle exec rake build
bundle exec rubocop
bundle exec rspec

Go

go mod download
go build ./...
go fmt ./...
go test ./...

Resources

For detailed patterns per runtime, see runtime-patterns.md.