Development

Prerequisites

Rust 1.70+ (a recent stable toolchain; CI builds on stable)
Python 3.9+
maturin

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/briefcasebrain/briefcase-ai-sdk.git
cd briefcase-ai-sdk

The repository is a Cargo workspace: the Rust core (crates/briefcase-core), the PyO3 bindings (bindings/python), and the Python package (briefcase/).

Install Development Dependencies

pip install briefcase-ai[dev]
pip install maturin

Build the Native Extension

maturin develop compiles the Rust core through the bindings and installs briefcase._native into the active environment:

maturin develop

Build the Rust Core Directly

cargo build -p briefcase-core --locked

Run the Test Suites

cargo test -p briefcase-core --locked   # Rust core
pytest tests/                           # Python facade (mocks the extension)
pytest bindings/python/tests/           # native binding tests (real extension)

See Testing for details on the facade vs. native split.

Development Workflow

Create a branch from main.
Make changes and add tests.
Run the formatters and linters (see Code Standards).
Run the test suites.
Submit a pull request.