Installation and SDK selection

Using Studio

Use a signed release installer: a notarized DMG on macOS Apple Silicon or an AppImage on Linux x86_64. Copy the Mac app to Applications. On Linux, make the AppImage executable and run it with --install for user-local integration. Ordinary Studio installation does not require Git, gcloud, Flutter or a Spectrum source checkout.

Published preview release metadata is available in the Mac nightly feed and Linux nightly feed. Nightly is a preview channel, not a general-availability guarantee. App updates bundle Studio, Runner, MCP helpers and their selected runtime/SDK together.

Building plugins locally

Use an installed or supplied SDK environment containing sdk/ and tools/. Select that exact environment; do not mix headers from one revision with another runtime. Set SPECTRUM_ENV below to its absolute path. Terminal commands use POSIX shell syntax.

Plugin source builds require CMake, Ninja and a native C++ compiler. Apple development requires Xcode tools; Linux requires its development toolchain. The SDK's declared Halide/MNN packages provide reusable dependencies; a plugin build should not compile private copies of the Spectrum runtime or those dependency recipes.

"$SPECTRUM_ENV/tools/bin/pluginlab_cli" --help
"$SPECTRUM_ENV/tools/bin/pluginlab_cli" build --workspace /absolute/plugin \
  --sdk-dir "$SPECTRUM_ENV/sdk"

Building needs explicit permission and locally available prerequisites. Cached inputs can support offline work; an uncached toolchain/dependency is not magically available offline. Selecting a target SDK slice does not install its platform toolchain or prove device execution. Follow the package's target requirements.

A separate versioned customer integration kit and automated prerequisite setup are tracked in the public documentation roadmap.