Local development environment

Toolchain

Tool	Version or notes
Node.js	22
pnpm	11.3.0, declared by the `packageManager` field in `package.json`
Rust	1.97.0, pinned by `rust-toolchain.toml`
Git	Used to clone the repository
Linux graphics	A working Vulkan driver and a graphical session

git clone https://github.com/vibex-ai/vibex.git
cd vibex
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile

Start the desktop

pnpm dev:desktop

The script prepares development icons and runs vibex-desktop. To check Rust on its own:

cargo check -p vibex-desktop --locked
cargo test -p vibex-desktop --locked
pnpm smoke:first-frame

Run the TUI directly from the workspace:

cargo run -p vibex-tui -- --home /tmp/vibex-dev

The embedded browser needs Chrome, Chromium, or Edge on the machine; computer use needs its driver installed and enabled in Settings. Neither is a compile dependency, but their smoke and manual checks need them.

Optional: mobile environment

Android — Android SDK/NDK, cargo-ndk, and the Rust targets for the target ABI.
iOS — macOS, Xcode, XcodeGen, and the aarch64-apple-ios and aarch64-apple-ios-sim targets.

Optional: self-hosted environment

Local development needs a runnable Rust binary or Docker:

docker compose -f deploy/relay/docker-compose.yml up --build -d relay-server
docker compose -f deploy/server/docker-compose.yml up --build -d vibex-server
curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:9700/health
curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:8765/api/v2/info

Note that the two services expose different info endpoints. For networking, HTTPS, Tailnet, and environment variables, see Self-hosted headless runtime and Self-hosted Relay; for protocol details, see Remote v2 and Relay.

Desktop debug switches

VIBEX_DISABLE_REMOTE_CLIENT=1 pnpm dev:desktop   # Ignore saved remote credentials and force the local runtime
VIBEX_HOME=/tmp/vibex-dev pnpm dev:desktop       # Use a separate runtime home
VIBEX_PROVIDER_SECRET_STORE=file pnpm dev:desktop # Fall back to a host key file when there is no keychain

vibex-desktop also exposes several probe entry points (--probe, --spike-*, --native-content-*). These are developer tools, not user features; do not present them as product capabilities in documentation.

Repository conventions

Run scripts from the repository root.

Do not commit target, signed packages, the PDFium runtime, or local credentials.
Before you change the product repository, check for existing uncommitted changes in the working tree and preserve them.
User-visible behavior changes require updating the documentation in all three languages; see Contributing.

​Toolchain

​Start the desktop

​Optional: mobile environment

​Optional: self-hosted environment

​Desktop debug switches

​Repository conventions