This guide covers how to set up the development environment and build Handy from source across different platforms.
- Rust (latest stable)
- Bun package manager
- Tauri Prerequisites
- Xcode Command Line Tools
- Install with:
xcode-select --install
Prebuilt ONNX Runtime binaries are not available for Intel Macs. Install ONNX Runtime via Homebrew and link dynamically:
brew install onnxruntime
ORT_LIB_LOCATION=$(brew --prefix onnxruntime)/lib ORT_PREFER_DYNAMIC_LINK=1 bun run tauri devThe same environment variables apply for production builds:
ORT_LIB_LOCATION=$(brew --prefix onnxruntime)/lib ORT_PREFER_DYNAMIC_LINK=1 bun run tauri build-
Microsoft C++ Build Tools: Visual Studio 2019/2022 with C++ development tools, or Visual Studio Build Tools 2019/2022
-
CMake (must be on
PATH):winget install Kitware.CMake
-
Vulkan SDK from LunarG — required to build the Vulkan GPU backend (
vulkan-shaders-genneeds the SDK's headers andglslc):winget install KhronosGroup.VulkanSDK
Open a new terminal afterward so
VULKAN_SDKis set.
Note
Windows' 260-character path limit used to break the native Vulkan build in
most checkouts. Since transcribe-cpp 0.1.3 the build works around it
automatically (it compiles through a short NTFS junction — no admin rights
or setup needed), so a normal checkout just builds. If you still hit
path-limit errors, see
Windows build fails with path-limit errors
in Troubleshooting.
-
Build essentials
-
ALSA development libraries
-
Install with:
# Ubuntu/Debian sudo apt update sudo apt install build-essential clang libclang-dev libevdev-dev libasound2-dev pkg-config libssl-dev libvulkan-dev vulkan-tools glslc spirv-headers glslang-tools libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev libgtk-layer-shell0 libgtk-layer-shell-dev patchelf cmake # Fedora/RHEL sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools" sudo dnf install alsa-lib-devel pkgconf openssl-devel vulkan-devel glslc \ clang clang-devel libevdev-devel \ spirv-headers-devel spirv-tools-devel glslang \ gtk3-devel webkit2gtk4.1-devel libappindicator-gtk3-devel librsvg2-devel \ gtk-layer-shell gtk-layer-shell-devel \ cmake # Arch Linux sudo pacman -S base-devel clang libevdev shaderc spirv-headers glslang alsa-lib pkgconf openssl vulkan-devel \ gtk3 webkit2gtk-4.1 libappindicator-gtk3 librsvg gtk-layer-shell \ cmake
git clone git@github.com:cjpais/Handy.git
cd Handybun installbun tauri devbun run tauri buildThis compiles a release binary and generates platform-specific bundles (deb, rpm, AppImage on Linux; dmg on macOS; msi on Windows).
The raw binary (src-tauri/target/release/handy) cannot run standalone — it needs Tauri resource files (tray icons, sounds, VAD model) to be co-located at the expected path.
Install from the deb bundle (works on any Linux distro):
cd /tmp
ar x /path/to/Handy/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/deb/Handy_*_amd64.deb data.tar.gz
tar xzf data.tar.gz
sudo cp usr/bin/handy /usr/bin/
sudo cp -a usr/lib/. /usr/lib/
sudo cp -r usr/share/icons/hicolor/* /usr/share/icons/hicolor/
sudo cp usr/share/applications/Handy.desktop /usr/share/applications/The runtime libraries live in the app-private /usr/lib/Handy/ (on the binary's rpath), so no ldconfig step is needed.
After subsequent rebuilds, copy the binary and any refreshed runtime libraries:
sudo cp src-tauri/target/release/handy /usr/bin/
sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/Handy
sudo cp -a src-tauri/transcribe-libs/. /usr/lib/Handy/Resources only need re-copying if they change upstream (new icons, sounds, models, etc.).
Local builds use the ad-hoc signingIdentity: "-". A rebuild can have a new macOS code
identity while the old System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility entry
remains visibly enabled, leaving Handy on Waiting....
After installing the final bundle at /Applications/Handy.app, quit Handy, clear only its
stale Accessibility record, then reopen it:
osascript -e 'tell application id "com.pais.handy" to quit' || true
tccutil reset Accessibility com.pais.handy
open /Applications/Handy.appGrant Accessibility again when prompted. This does not reset Microphone or other TCC services, and official releases normally do not need it.
For optional diagnosis, compare the designated requirements of the previous and rebuilt bundles:
codesign -dr - /path/to/previous/Handy.app 2>&1
codesign -dr - /Applications/Handy.app 2>&1An ad-hoc requirement contains a cdhash; a changed requirement confirms the rebuild is
not covered by the old grant. The reset procedure does not require this check.
See issue #1618 for the related onboarding and stale-permission report.
linuxdeploy bundles its own strip binary which is too old to process system libraries built with newer toolchains on rolling-release distros (Arch, CachyOS, Manjaro, EndeavourOS).
The error from Tauri:
Bundling Handy_*_amd64.AppImage
failed to bundle project `failed to run linuxdeploy`
Tauri swallows the real linuxdeploy error. To see it, run linuxdeploy manually:
cd src-tauri/target/release/bundle/appimage
~/.cache/tauri/linuxdeploy-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run \
--appdir Handy.AppDir --plugin gtk --output appimageWorkaround: The binary, deb, and rpm bundles all build fine — only the AppImage step fails. To skip it:
bun run tauri build -- --bundles debThen install using the deb extraction method above.
On Windows the native build can fail partway through transcribe-cpp-sys with
any of these (all the same root cause):
error MSB3491: Could not write lines to file "...VCTargetsPath.tlog\VCTargetsPath.lastbuildstate".
Path: ... exceeds the OS max path limit. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters.
FileTracker : error FTK1011: could not create the new file tracking log file:
...\vulkan-shaders-gen-build\...\cmTC_xxxxx.tlog\link.write.1.tlog.
The system cannot find the path specified.
error MSB6003: The specified task executable "CL.exe" could not be run.
System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: Could not find a part of the path ...
This is not a code or toolchain problem — it's Windows' legacy 260-character
path limit (MAX_PATH), overflowed by the Vulkan shader generator's nested
CMake build tree on top of Cargo's already-deep
target\release\build\<crate>-<hash>\out\build\... directory.
Since transcribe-cpp 0.1.3 this is mitigated automatically: the native build
compiles through a short NTFS junction under %LOCALAPPDATA%\tcs (created
without admin rights), so a normal checkout builds with no setup. Enabling
Windows long paths does not reliably help here — MSBuild's native
FileTracker (tracker.exe) ignores the long-paths flag — which is why the
junction, not the registry flag, is the fix.
If you still see the errors above, junction creation was likely blocked
(filesystem or corporate policy) — the failing build's log then contains a
transcribe-cpp-sys: could not create short build junction ... warning — or
your checkout is deep enough to overflow even the shortened layout. Work
around either case with a short Cargo target directory:
# Per-shell:
$env:CARGO_TARGET_DIR = "C:\h"
# Or persist it for all future terminals (note: redirects ALL your
# Rust projects' build output, not just Handy):
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('CARGO_TARGET_DIR', 'C:\h', 'User')Artifacts then land in C:\h\release\... instead of the repo's
src-tauri\target\. Open a new terminal if you persisted the variable —
it is only picked up by freshly started processes. Then bun run tauri dev
and bun run tauri build work normally.
If the build compiles all the way to Built application at: ...\handy.exe and
then fails with:
Signing C:\...\handy.exe with a custom signing command
failed to bundle project `program not found`
that's the code-signing step: tauri.conf.json configures a custom
signCommand (trusted-signing-cli, Azure Trusted Signing) that only exists
in the release CI environment. Local development doesn't need it:
# Development (no bundling/signing at all):
bun run tauri dev
# Or compile a release binary without the installer/signing step:
bun run tauri build --no-bundle