Set up a development environment

Xila is now developed in three Rust workspaces. Core owns portable OS libraries; Applications owns official apps and Wasmi; Platforms owns native/browser assembly, hardware drivers, demos and reference images.

All three use mise and Rust with repo-specific tasks. Do not run the old image:native, image:wasm or pages:demo instructions in Core.

Prepare checkouts

On a supported x86_64 Debian/Ubuntu Linux development machine:

git clone https://github.com/xila-project/core.git
git clone https://github.com/xila-project/applications.git
git clone https://github.com/xila-project/platforms.git

cd core
mise trust
mise bootstrap packages apply --manager apt
mise run deps:npm
export XILA_APPLICATIONS_ROOT="$(realpath ../applications)"
export XILA_APPLICATIONS_MANIFEST="$XILA_APPLICATIONS_ROOT/Cargo.toml"
export XILA_FONT_CATALOG_ROOTS="$XILA_APPLICATIONS_ROOT"
mise run check:all
cd ../applications
mise trust
npm ci
mise run build:applications
cd ../platforms
mise trust
mise bootstrap packages apply --manager apt
npm ci
mise run build:native

The three manifests pin dependent Git revisions. Checking out the latest main in each directory does not automatically override those pins. For cross-repository development, generate the explicit Cargo patch file from tools/dev/local_overrides.py rather than editing locked dependencies casually. Do not commit a Cargo.lock regenerated under temporary local patches.

The exact native OS, linker, graphics/font and display dependencies vary by operation. Mise selects task-scoped tool versions and optional mr-boxington caching; MISE_ENV=ci uses separate CI definitions.

Select the repository for the task

What you want to do	Where to run it
Portable VFS, Task, Time, Graphics, Network, ABI and device APIs	core
WASI applications, Wasmi, graphical/CLI shells, localization of applications	applications
Native/browser runtime, Linux/ESP drivers, seed images, OPFS and deployment	platforms
Manifest/TAR development packages	package_manager
Static community publication declarations	registry

To assemble a desktop or browser demonstration, build WASI apps first, then point Platforms at them:

cd platforms
export XILA_APPLICATIONS_DIR="$(realpath ../applications/target/wasm32-wasip1/release-wasm)"
export XILA_FONT_CATALOG_ROOTS="$(realpath ../applications)"
mise run image:native

For the browser use image:browser. The CI-only pages:build task can build complete localized demonstrations itself.

Hardware and validation limits

A native Core/Platforms build does not establish ESP32 or Wokwi firmware support. The split still contains legacy ESP driver code needing target-specific validation. Build and flash with the intended ESP-IDF/toolchain, partition and board configuration before claiming hardware support.

Continue with Development commands, native tutorial, and browser tutorial.