Setup

Stack

• Languages: Dart, Rust, C++ (Windows, Linux), Swift (macOS)
  • Dart <-> Rust glue: flutter_rust_bridge
• UI: Flutter
  • UI kit: fluent_ui
  • Routing: go_router
• Webcam: Nokhwa
• Printing: Printing
• Logging: Talker
• Data classes: Freezed
• Firefox Send client: ffsend-api
• JPEG decoding: zune-jpeg, encoding: jpeg-encoder

Requirements

For all languages, frameworks and tools, we support the latest versions.

For all platforms

• flutter_rust_bridge_codegen

  • Install using Cargo:

    cargo install flutter_rust_bridge_codegen --version 2.11.1
    

• Flutter SDK 3.41.0+

  • Be sure that the flutter command is available globally as flutter_rust_bridge_codegen needs it.
    This is especially important when using Flutter SDK managers like asdf or fvm

• Optional: For building the documentation mdBook and some extensions for mdBook are needed

  • Install using Cargo:

    cargo install mdbook mdbook-mermaid
    

• Be sure to read the docs for troubleshooting and workarounds

On Windows

• Visual Studio 2026 Build Tools
  • Optional: full Visual Studio 2026 installation
  • Select Desktop development with C++ under the Workloads tab
    • Under installation details on the right panel, select the MSVC Build Tools, Windows 11 SDK, and C++ ATL (needed for Flutter secure storage plugin)
• Rust
  • Recommended installation via rustup to keep components up to date
  • Use default options (MSVC host, target, and toolchain)
• MSYS2

  • Follow the instructions on the MSYS2 website

  • Install the following packages:

    mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-pkgconf mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-libgphoto2 mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-curl-winssl mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-nghttp2 mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-nghttp3
    

  • Make sure {MSYS_INSTALL_PATH}\clang64\bin is in your PATH (before other folders that also provide pkg-config/pkgconf)

On macOS

• Xcode
  • Installing from the App Store is recommended (automatic updates)
• Rust (aarch64-apple-darwin or x86_64-apple-darwin, depending on your architecture)
  • Recommended installation via rustup
  • rustup is also available via Homebrew
• Homebrew

  • Install with

    pkgconf libgphoto2
    

On Linux

• System packages

  • See the Flutter documentation for a list of required packages
  • Note: the installation command provided by Flutter may only work on Ubuntu — check your distro’s package names

• Additional packages

  llvm libssl-dev libdigest-sha-perl libcurl4-openssl-dev libasound2-dev
  

• Rust (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu or aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu, depending on your architecture)

  • Recommended installation via rustup

Build steps

Using just (recommended)

Please note: This method expects global fvm to be available and just.

1. Run just from the root folder of the repository
2. Run flutter run or use your IDE to run the application

Manually

Please note: Run all commands from the root folder of the repository, unless mentioned otherwise.

1. Generate translation files.

   flutter gen-l10n
   

2. Generate Rust <-> Dart code

   flutter_rust_bridge_codegen generate
   

   • Note: Make sure to re-run this command if you changed anything in the Rust subproject.

3. Generate Dart helper code

   dart run build_runner build
   

4. Build and run the app with flutter run or use your IDE to run the application

   • Note: This will automatically build the Rust subproject before building the Flutter project, so no need to worry about that!

Developing tips

When to re-run build steps

• If you have changed any code in the Dart or Rust project that could change the generated bridging code, you should re-run the flutter_rust_bridge_codegen generate or just gen-bridge command
  • You can also run flutter_rust_bridge_codegen generate --watch or just watch-bridge to automatically regenerate the bridging code when you save a file
  • You might need to run dart run build_runner build --delete-conflicting-outputs or just gen-code
• If you have changed any code related to JSON or TOML serialization, or MobX, you should re-run the dart run build_runner build --delete-conflicting-outputs or just gen-code command
  • You can also run dart run build_runner watch --delete-conflicting-outputs or just watch-code to automatically regenerate the code when you save a file
• If you have changed any code related to the localization, you should re-run the flutter gen-l10n of just gen-l10n command

Adding a new screen using the VS Code extension Template

1. Make sure to have the Template extension installed
2. Right click the views folder in VS Code Explorer
3. Click Template: Create New (with rename), pick the view template
4. Pick a name, enter it in {snake_case}_screen format (e.g. settings_screen or email_photo_screen), press Enter
5. Your new view should be available!