Build the Rust Core

Note

Most users never need this page — pip install briefcase-ai ships precompiled wheels with no Rust toolchain required. This guide is for contributors who want to build the Rust core and Python bindings from source.

Prerequisites

• A recent stable Rust toolchain (Rust 1.70+; CI builds on stable)
• Python 3.9+
• maturin

The crates use Rust edition 2021. The Cargo.toml does not pin a minimum Rust version, so any current stable toolchain works.

Clone

git clone https://github.com/briefcasebrain/briefcase-ai-sdk.git
cd briefcase-ai-sdk

The repository is a Cargo workspace with the core library (crates/briefcase-core) and the PyO3 bindings (bindings/python).

Build the Rust Core

cargo build -p briefcase-core --locked

Run Tests

cargo test -p briefcase-core --locked

Build the Python Bindings

pip install maturin
maturin develop

This compiles the Rust core through the bindings and installs the briefcase._native extension into the active environment. Add --release for an optimized build:

maturin develop --release

See Development for the full contributor workflow.

Next steps

Development The full contributor workflow: tooling, tests, and conventions.