# Add versus dev and potential confusion

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/add-versus-dev-and-potential-confusion/136712
**Category:** New to Julia
**Tags:** pkg
**Created:** [April 14, 2026, 4:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/add-versus-dev-and-potential-confusion/136712 "2026-04-14T16:27:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![mahmah](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mahmah/32/214326_2.png) [@mahmah](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mahmah)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2026, 4:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/add-versus-dev-and-potential-confusion/136712/1 "2026-04-14T16:27:59Z")

</div>

“Because you’re expected to make changes to code when you use `dev` , Julia copies packages that you `develop` for the first time by specifying its name or URL (for example `dev MacroTools` or `dev https://github.com/FluxML/MacroTools.jl` ) into a special folder at `.julia/dev` . Here, you can access them with your editor of choice, make changes, and sync those back to GitHub or other version control systems.“

> **[jkrumbiegel.com – Pkg.jl and Julia Environments for Beginners](https://jkrumbiegel.com/pages/2022-08-26-pkg-introduction/)**

I think I finally understood why I had two versions of my package in my computer; this has all been pretty confusing to me. I wonder whether there could be a warning about this to users in order to avoid confusion?