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Quick Start for Package Authors

Publish your MATLAB toolbox to tbxmanager in 3 steps. If you don't have tbxmanager yet, see Getting Started.

Step 1: Add tbxmanager.json

Run tbxmanager init in your project directory to generate the metadata file:

>> cd my-toolbox
>> tbxmanager init
Created tbxmanager.json

Then edit the generated tbxmanager.json to match your package:

{
  "name": "my-toolbox",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "A useful MATLAB toolbox",
  "authors": ["YourGitHubUsername"],
  "license": "MIT",
  "homepage": "https://github.com/you/my-toolbox",
  "matlab": ">=R2022a",
  "platforms": {
    "all": {}
  },
  "dependencies": {}
}

Tip

You can also create tbxmanager.json by hand if you don't have tbxmanager installed yet.

Set platforms to "all" for pure MATLAB packages. If you distribute compiled MEX files, use platform-specific keys (win64, maci64, maca64, glnxa64) instead.

Step 2: Create a GitHub Release

  1. Zip your package (exclude .git, tests, docs, etc.)

  2. Tag your version and push:

    git tag v1.0.0
git push --tags

  3. Go to your repo on GitHub, click Releases > Create a new release

  4. Select the tag, add a title, and attach your zip file as a release asset
  5. Click Publish release

Step 3: Submit to the Registry

  1. Go to tbxmanager-registry > Issues > New Issue
  2. Click "Submit Package"
  3. Fill in your Repository URL and Release tag
  4. Click Submit new issue

That's it! A bot will automatically:

  • Fetch your tbxmanager.json
  • Download your release archive
  • Compute the SHA256 hash
  • Create a pull request to the registry

Once a maintainer merges the PR, your package is live:

tbxmanager install my-toolbox

Updating Your Package

  1. Update version in tbxmanager.json
  2. Create a new release with the updated archive
  3. Submit another issue on the registry (same form)

New versions are added alongside existing ones. Users can install specific versions with tbxmanager install my-toolbox@>=1.1.

Optional: Customize What Gets Packaged

Add a publish section to tbxmanager.json to control what goes into the archive:

{
  "publish": {
    "exclude": [".git", ".github", "tests", "docs", "benchmarks"]
  }
}

MEX Packages (Platform-Specific)

If your package includes compiled MEX files, create separate archives per platform:

  • my-toolbox-win64.zip
  • my-toolbox-maci64.zip
  • my-toolbox-maca64.zip
  • my-toolbox-glnxa64.zip

Attach all of them to your GitHub Release and select the appropriate platform in the submission form.

Even Faster: tbxmanager publish

If you have tbxmanager installed, you can do everything in one command:

>> cd my-toolbox
>> tbxmanager publish

This builds the archive, creates the GitHub release, uploads it, and submits to the registry — all automatically. Requires a GitHub token with public_repo scope (prompted on first use).

Next Steps