Provide Cmder packages for WinGet, Chocolatey, Scoop #3094

Goal

Make Cmder easy to install through common Windows package managers while keeping the project's portable release model accurate, discoverable, and maintainable.

This issue is the canonical coordination point for research, documentation, manifests, packaging scripts, related PRs, and maintainer decisions. Some steps require the Cmder core team because contributors cannot claim external package ownership, publish official registry submissions, or approve release-channel policy on behalf of cmderdev.

Canonical wiki page: Package Manager Status

Channel Snapshot

Decisions Needed

• Decide whether each channel should be official, supported community-maintained, or explicitly unofficial-but-documented.
• Confirm WinGet package identity. Proposed starting point: Cmder.Cmder for full and Cmder.CmderMini for mini.
• Confirm whether WinGet should publish both full and mini. Proposal: publish both; full should target x64, while mini can be architecture-neutral.
• Choose who from the core team should own or co-own Chocolatey package maintenance.
• Decide whether Scoop should remain primarily in ScoopInstaller/Main, or whether cmderdev wants an additional official Scoop bucket.
• Define release workflow expectations so package manifests are generated, validated, and submitted from a documented process after each GitHub release.

Workstreams

WinGet

• Generate archive/portable manifests from the official cmder.zip and cmder_mini.zip release assets.
• Validate generated manifests locally with WinGet tooling.
• Submit the manifests to microsoft/winget-pkgs after package IDs and ownership wording are approved.
• Link the accepted PRs back to this issue and the wiki page.

Chocolatey

• Contact the current package maintainers from the public package pages.
• Ask whether Cmder maintainers can be added as co-maintainers or whether ownership should be coordinated another way.
• Preserve clear package-source links so users can report Chocolatey-specific problems in the right place.
• If maintainers do not respond after the vendor-guidance waiting period, collect the contact record and ask Chocolatey site admins for help.

Scoop

• Keep cmder.json and cmder-full.json aligned with Cmder releases.
• Decide whether documentation should endorse ScoopInstaller/Main as the preferred Scoop route.
• If an official bucket is desired, define ownership, release responsibilities, and migration messaging.

Repository Release Prep

• Add or maintain package-manager templates/scripts in this repository.
• Document release-time commands and handoff steps.
• Keep registry submission and publishing manual until credentials, ownership, and policy are approved.
• Update the wiki whenever ownership or package availability changes.

Related Threads

WinGet

• #2552 tracks the active WinGet feature request.
• #2355 is an older WinGet pipeline request that now points to [Feature Request] Add Cmder to Winget #2552 and this tracker.

Chocolatey

• #959 documents the Chocolatey ownership split and community-maintained package status.
• #762 is an older Chocolatey support request redirected away from this repo because the package was not maintained here.

Scoop

• #42 is the original Scoop/package-manager discussion.

Installer And Updater Work

• #2729 tracks installer/MSI interest. Installer work may still be useful, but it is not the only route for WinGet.
• #1818 tracks an older installer/updater proposal.

Implementation

• #3095 adds Cmder-side package-manager release prep.

References

• WinGet manifest creation
• WinGet manifest submission
• WinGet portable package docs
• Chocolatey vendor/author package maintenance guidance
• Chocolatey package triage process
• Chocolatey maintainer handover guidance
• Current Chocolatey Cmder
• Current Chocolatey cmdermini
• Current Scoop cmder
• Current Scoop cmder-full