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Environment Setup

Prepare your local machine to contribute to the project. You can configure your environment automatically using Nix (recommended) or manually install the required dependencies.

We recommend using devenv and direnv to create an isolated development environment. This method automatically installs and configures the correct tool versions when you enter the project directory.

  1. Set up the Nix package manager and devenv by following the installation guide.
  2. Install direnv and hook it into your shell to enable automatic environment switching.
tip

Use Starship to display your active devenv status directly in your terminal prompt.

Android​

The Android SDK, NDK, and emulator system images add over 20 GB to the environment, so they are not installed by default. You need them to run yarn sim:android in applications/mobile, or to build the Android client in applications/clients. To install them, put the following in devenv.local.yaml:

profile: android
nixpkgs:
  allow_unfree: true

nixpkgs.allow_unfree is required because Google distributes parts of the Android SDK under non-free licenses. To use the profile once without a config file, run devenv --profile android shell. Building the native Android client additionally requires a swift.org toolchain with the matching Android SDK bundle; see applications/clients/CONTRIBUTING.md.

Manual Setup​

If you prefer to manage your environment yourself, install the following dependencies globally. You must use the specified versions to avoid compatibility issues.

  • Git LFS: Required for handling large media assets. Make sure to run git lfs pull in the repo.
  • Node.js: Version 24.x
  • Build Tools: gcc, ffmpeg, yarn, sqlite