Comparison Matrix

Side-by-side comparison of avm against asdf, vfox, mise, and proto, checked against each project's docs in September 2026. "Not documented" means we couldn't find it, not that it's confirmed absent.

Capability	avm	asdf	vfox	mise	proto
Implementation	Rust	Go (rewritten from Bash in v0.16)	Go	Rust	Rust
Plugin model	Compiled executable per tool, separate process, typed JSON-over-stdio; asdf plugins via an adapter	Bash scripts	Lua	asdf and vfox plugins plus backends (aqua, npm, cargo, …)	WASM plugins, or TOML/JSON/YAML definitions
Download verification	sha256 on by default for plugins, avm itself and first-party runtimes (fails closed); build provenance attestations	Left to each plugin	Plugin-supplied checksum	aqua backend: checksums, cosign/minisign/SLSA/attestations	Checksums, minisign, GPG
Existing version files	.tool-versions, .nvmrc, .node-version, package.json, .java-version, .sdkmanrc, on by default	.tool-versions; others opt-in	.tool-versions, .nvmrc, .node-version, .sdkmanrc	Opt-in per tool	.nvmrc etc. on by default
Config trust	avm trust (hash-pinned; editing re-blocks)	Not documented	Not documented	mise trust	Not documented
Windows	Native plugins and .exe shims; PowerShell integration and cmd.exe forwarding	WSL only	Native	Native	Native
Lockfile	.avm.lock for Node/Java; exact versions, archive SHA-256 and frozen installs	No	Not documented	mise.lock (opt-in)	.protolock (unstable)
Tasks	Aliases + package.json scripts (no dependency graph yet, #33)	No	No	Yes	No (moon is separate)
Pinned version missing	Falls back to the system binary with a warning	Error	Not documented	Auto-install	Error (auto-install opt-in)
Plugin subcommands	Yes (e.g. avm android avd)	Yes	No	Not documented	Not documented
Global npm packages across switches	Built in	Per plugin (default-packages file)	Not documented	Default-packages file (deprecated)	Shared globals dir