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AIDER_DESK_EXTRA_PYTHON_PACKAGES

The AIDER_DESK_EXTRA_PYTHON_PACKAGES environment variable allows you to install additional Python packages into AiderDesk's virtual environment. This can be useful for a few reasons:

  • Installing new libraries that you want to be available to aider.
  • Overriding specific versions of aider's dependencies.

How to Use​

You can set this environment variable before launching AiderDesk. The value should be a comma-separated list of Python packages as you would specify them for pip install.

macOS/Linux:

export AIDER_DESK_EXTRA_PYTHON_PACKAGES="package1,package2==1.2.3"
./AiderDesk-*.AppImage

Windows (Command Prompt):

set AIDER_DESK_EXTRA_PYTHON_PACKAGES="package1,package2==1.2.3"
AiderDesk.exe

Windows (PowerShell):

$env:AIDER_DESK_EXTRA_PYTHON_PACKAGES="package1,package2==1.2.3"
.\AiderDesk.exe

Examples​

Overriding a Dependency​

Aider uses the Pygments library for code analysis and token counting. If you want to use the very latest, unreleased version of Pygments directly from their git repository, you can do so like this:

export AIDER_DESK_EXTRA_PYTHON_PACKAGES="git+https://github.com/pygments/pygments.git@master"

When you start AiderDesk, it will install the specified version of Pygments.

Installing a New Package​

If you need to install a package like scikit-learn, you can specify it:

export AIDER_DESK_EXTRA_PYTHON_PACKAGES="scikit-learn"

Combining Multiple Packages​

You can provide a comma-separated list to install or override multiple packages at once:

export AIDER_DESK_EXTRA_PYTHON_PACKAGES="scikit-learn==1.0.2,pandas,git+https://github.com/pygments/pygments.git@master"

Important Notes​

  • Packages are installed using uv pip install. Any format that uv and pip accept should work.
  • The packages are installed into a dedicated virtual environment managed by AiderDesk, so they will not affect your system's global Python installation.
  • If you make a mistake, you can simply unset the environment variable and restart AiderDesk. On the next start, it may try to re-install the default dependencies if needed.
  • For a clean installation, you can remove the virtual environment directory (.aider-desk/python_venvs/aider-desk-env inside your home directory) and let AiderDesk recreate it on the next start.