Building from Source

VirtEngine is developed against Go 1.26.8 (go.mod:3, and GO_VERSION in .github/workflows/ci.yaml). The build is Makefile-driven and produces a single binary, virtengine, containing the full node and client functionality.

Prerequisites

Requirement	Notes
Go 1.26.8	With `GOPATH` set and `$GOPATH/bin` in `$PATH`
C/C++ compiler	`gcc` or `clang` — required for C dependencies (`libusb`, `libhid`)
GNU make 4+	macOS ships an ancient make; install via Homebrew (keg-only — prepend its gnubin to `PATH`)
direnv	Required on non-Windows: `make/init.mk` fails without it unless `VE_DIRENV_SET` is exported (see `.envrc`)

Supported platforms

Platform	Arch	Status
Darwin	amd64 / arm64	Supported
Linux	amd64 / arm64	Supported
Linux	armhf (GOARM 5,6,7)	Not supported
Windows	amd64	Experimental

Build

Install dependencies.

# macOS
brew install curl wget jq direnv coreutils make npm
export PATH="$(brew --prefix)/opt/make/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"

# Debian-based Linux
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y jq curl wget unzip build-essential libudev-dev ca-certificates npm direnv gcc

Clone and build.
Terminal window
```
git clone https://github.com/virtengine/virtengine
cd virtengine
make virtengine
```
The compiled executable is written to .cache/bin. Inside the repository environment it takes precedence over any system-wide virtengine.

The `.cache` build environment

The build creates a .cache directory at the source root for pinned versions of temporary build tools (protoc and friends), installed only when a target needs them:

.cache/
  bin/       # build tools
  run/       # work directories for _run examples
  versions/  # version markers used to detect tool upgrades

Set VE_DEVCACHE to relocate it. Tool versions and install rules live in make/init.mk and make/setup-cache.mk.

Installing releases instead

There is no release-based install path today. This repository has no published releases — the only release record is 0.1.0, a draft from 2021 — so neither route below can resolve an artifact:

virtengine/homebrew-tap does not exist (GitHub returns 404), so brew tap virtengine/tap fails.
install.sh on main declares OWNER="virtengine-network" and REPO="node" (install.sh:351-352); that repository does not resolve, so the one-liner cannot download anything built from this repository.

Until releases exist, build from source with make virtengine (above). For network posture, see Network Launch Schedule.

Next steps

Development Environment — direnv, frontend tooling, and the Docker localnet.
Contributing — how changes land.