Building from Source

Black Sparrow is written in standard Rust (2021 edition) and uses a 2-member Cargo workspace.

Prerequisites#

• Rust Toolchain: Rust 1.80 or later (rustup.rs).
• C Compiler & System Libraries:
  • Ubuntu / Debian: sudo apt update && sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev
  • Fedora / RHEL: sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools" && sudo dnf install openssl-devel
  • macOS: xcode-select --install
  • Windows: Visual Studio C++ Build Tools

1. Clone the Repository#

git clone https://github.com/Shantodotdev/blacksparrow.git
cd blacksparrow

2. Workspace Layout#

The repository is structured as a Cargo workspace:

• Root (.):
  • src/lib.rs: The core engine library (blacksparrow).
  • src/main.rs: The headless command-line binary (blacksparrow).
• Desktop Shell (src-tauri/):
  • Native Tauri v2 desktop window wrapper.
• Documentation (docs-site/):
  • This Docora documentation site (Next.js 16 + React 19 + Tailwind CSS 4).
• Tests (tests/):
  • Comprehensive integration test suites and synthetic HTML fixtures (tests/fixtures/).

3. Compiling the Binary#

Development Build (Fast Compilation)#

cargo build

The executable is placed in ./target/debug/blacksparrow.

Optimized Release Binary (Maximum Speed)#

cargo build --release

The release build enables link-time optimization (LTO) and code generation tuning. The resulting binary in ./target/release/blacksparrow is fully optimized and under 15 MB.

Global Installation#

To install blacksparrow directly to your ~/.cargo/bin:

cargo install --path .

4. Code Standards & Linting#

Before opening a pull request, ensure the codebase is formatted and passes clippy checks:

# Format all workspace files
cargo fmt --all
 
# Run clippy with strict warnings
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings