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Drop support for asdf

Problem

Supporting both mise and asdf creates significant maintenance overhead and reliability issues for GDK users and contributors:

  • Development velocity: Every GDK change requires consideration of both tool managers, slowing feature development
  • User experience: asdf is historically much slower than mise, impacting developer productivity
  • Reliability: Dual support creates failure scenarios like issue #2843
  • Security concerns: asdf dependency on plugins introduces potential security risks

Current Usage

Recent telemetry shows minimal asdf adoption:

  • Team members: Peak of 6 users out of 265 total (2.3%)
  • Community contributors: Dropped to 0 users as of July 29, 2025
  • GitPod: Already migrated to mise in MR !5031 (merged)

Solution

Remove asdf support entirely by July 31st, 2025 to:

  • Reduce maintenance burden and improve development velocity
  • Eliminate dual-support failure scenarios
  • Provide consistent, faster tooling experience for all users
  • Simplify onboarding for new contributors

Implementation Plan

  • Communicate with Contributor Success team
  • Remove asdf jobs in CI
  • Remove asdf installation option during setup
  • Clean up asdf-related code (1 month after July 31)
  • Close asdf-related issues
  • Migrate GitPod workspace image (if not discontinued by September)
  • Simplify config: Replace asdf.opt_out & mise.enabled with single tool_version_manager.opt_out

Timeline

  • April 1st, 2025: mise became default (completed)
  • July 31st, 2025: Complete asdf removal (target)

Impacted categories

Status

Edited by Mohga Gamea