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meow x — ephemeral execution

meow x is meow’s npx/bunx: it installs a package into a throwaway workspace, runs its binary, and discards the workspace afterward. Nothing is added to your project.
Pin a version or use a dist-tag:

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How it works

1

Temp workspace

meow creates a temporary directory, writes a minimal package.json, and resolves the requested package (latest by default, or your specifier).
2

Install & verify

The package and its dependencies install into the temp workspace using the same verified, cached pipeline as meow install — so a tool you’ve run before starts instantly from cache.
3

Run the bin & clean up

meow locates the package’s bin entry, prints the sandbox envelope, runs it under the fs/network sandbox, and removes the temp workspace when the process exits.

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The sandbox

Because meow x runs freshly downloaded code you may not fully trust, it runs sandboxed by default:
  • Network denied — no outbound connections.
  • Writes confined to the current directory, the ephemeral workspace, and the OS temp dir. Reads are allowed anywhere.
  • No subprocesses or native addons (child_process, N-API/FFI are blocked).
Before running, meow x prints a one-line envelope so you always know the access:
Every denial names the exact bypass. Grant full host access with --trust — grants can be placed after the package name, they’re parsed out of the trailing arguments:
Tools that download templates or hit a registry (create-next-app, create-vite, …) need --trust because the network is denied by default. Set MEOW_TRUST_ALL=1 in your shell profile to make trust the permanent default.
See Permissions for the full model.

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Shorthands

Thanks to the omni-router and the installed shims, you can reach meow x several ways:

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Global installs

meow add -g installs a package’s binary globally. meow writes a lightweight shim into ~/.meow/bin that runs the package through meow x on demand — so global “installs” stay current and never bloat a global node_modules.
Make sure ~/.meow/bin is on your PATH (the installer does this for you). meow reminds you of the bin directory after a global install.

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Searching the registry

Find packages without leaving the terminal:
s and find are aliases for search.

Back to dependency management

install, add, remove, and the cache.