Getting Started

Installation

Set up the BornEngine CLI, Perry, package manager, Rust toolchain, and platform dependencies.

What you need

Goal	Required setup
Read docs or examples	A browser; Git only if you clone the repository
Install the CLI	Rust and Cargo through rustup
Build a native game	CLI, Perry, Rust/Cargo, one package manager, and the host backend/linker
Build Web/WASM	Native setup plus wasm-pack
Build Apple targets	macOS and Xcode
Build Android	Perry’s Android target plus Android Studio and its SDK/NDK

The CLI itself is Rust-based and does not require Node.js. Game projects do use Node.js and a package manager to install @bornengine/engine.

Install the CLI and compiler

Install the CLI from its companion repository:

shell

cargo install --git https://github.com/RuanFernandes/bornengine-cli
npm install -g @perryts/perry

BornEngine projects default to pnpm, but npm and Yarn are supported:

shell

npm install --global pnpm
corepack enable

The first command installs pnpm. corepack enable makes the package-manager shims available for Yarn on Node installations that include Corepack. Choose one manager for a project; installing all three is not required.

Verify the setup

Run the checks that match the work you want to do:

shell

rustc --version
cargo --version
perry --version
bornengine --version
node --version
npm --version
bornengine doctor

If you use pnpm or Yarn, verify that manager instead of treating every package manager as required. bornengine doctor checks the compiler, Rust, package manager, project, and host prerequisites and is the best first diagnostic when a build fails.

Official installation guides

Native Linux headers

On Debian or Ubuntu, the minimum Linux backend set documented by the CLI is:

shell

sudo apt install pkg-config libx11-dev libxi-dev libasound2-dev

Other distributions use different package names. Start with the equivalent pkg-config, X11/XI, and ALSA development packages, then run bornengine doctor again.

If setup fails

Run bornengine doctor, fix the first failing check, and rerun it. If a target is rejected after the local tools pass, inspect perry compile --help: the CLI only accepts targets advertised by the installed Perry compiler and never silently substitutes another platform.

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