Lucafile: tools

The tools: section of your Lucafile tells Luca which binary tools to install and where to find them.

Scaffolding a Lucafile

Generate a starter Lucafile in the current directory:

luca init

Full Schema

---
tools:
  - name: ToolName              # Logical name used for installation and listing
    version: 1.2.3              # Version string (used for caching and display)
    url: https://...            # URL to a binary archive or a raw executable
    binaryPath: path/to/bin     # Path inside the archive to the binary (omit for raw executables)
    desiredBinaryName: toolname # Override the binary name stored locally (raw executables only)
    checksum: e0a6540d...       # Hash of the asset for integrity verification (recommended)
    algorithm: sha256           # Hash algorithm: md5, sha1, sha256, or sha512

Field Reference

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Logical name. Used for luca uninstall <name>, luca linked, and caching.
version	Yes	Version string. Determines the cache path ~/.luca/tools/<name>/<version>/.
url	Yes	Remote URL to a .zip archive or a raw executable.
binaryPath	No	Path to the binary inside the archive. Omit when url points to a raw executable.
desiredBinaryName	No	Override the local binary name. Only valid when url is a raw executable.
checksum	No	Hash of the downloaded asset. Strongly recommended — Luca warns when missing.
algorithm	No	Hash algorithm. Defaults to sha256. Options: md5, sha1, sha256, sha512.

Examples

Tool distributed as a zip archive:

tools:
  - name: SwiftLint
    binaryPath: SwiftLintBinary.artifactbundle/swiftlint-0.61.0-macos/bin/swiftlint
    version: 0.61.0
    url: https://github.com/realm/SwiftLint/releases/download/0.61.0/SwiftLintBinary.artifactbundle.zip
    checksum: e0a6540d01434f43633...
    algorithm: sha256

Raw executable (no archive):

tools:
  - name: FirebaseCLI
    version: 14.12.1
    url: https://github.com/firebase/firebase-tools/releases/download/v14.12.1/firebase-tools-macos
    desiredBinaryName: firebase

Spec File Names

Luca discovers spec files by looking for any file in the current directory whose name starts with Lucafile, Toolfile, or Skillfile. All names accept the same YAML structure.

Lucafile          # default
Lucafile.yml      # YAML extension variant
Toolfile          # tool-only file
Skillfile         # skill-only file
Lucafile-ci       # named variant (e.g. for CI-only tools)

Named variants (suffixed with -<name>) let you maintain separate specs for different contexts — for example Lucafile-dev for development tools and Lucafile-ci for CI tools — without mixing them in a single file.

Installing Only Tools

Skip skills when running luca install:

luca install --only-tools