If you’ve ever tried writing a quick Java script or small backend app without dragging along the heavy boilerplate of traditional build tools, you know the frustration. Managing dependencies manually means searching Maven Central, downloading raw JARs, and hoping your classpath doesn't break when you move to a new machine.
That friction is why I started building jar-cart—a zero-config CLI package manager and runner designed to give Java developers the speed and simplicity of modern ecosystems like Node's npm or Python's uv, while keeping the absolute freedom of "no-build" Java.
With the brand-new v0.6.0 release, jar-cart has evolved from a simple script manager into a production-grade workspace orchestrator. Here is what changed and why I built it.
The Problem: Friction and Duplication
When working outside of heavy enterprise build systems, developers usually hit a wall:
