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Development setup

Linux is the primary development environment because it exercises the full Servo, OpenGL, GStreamer, and packaging path.

Clone and prepare the repository

git clone https://github.com/KaykCaputo/hermes-browser.git
cd hermes-browser
make install-linux-deps
make setup

make setup uses the current stable Rust toolchain, installs formatting and lint components, and fetches dependencies with --locked.

Check your tools

make doctor

The command reports the active Rust toolchain and verifies that Cargo, Rust, and rustup are available.

Servo also builds native code. On Linux, Hermes expects Clang, CMake, a C/C++ toolchain, Fontconfig, X11 development libraries, and the GStreamer development stack installed by make install-linux-deps.

Build and run

make build
make run

Pass application arguments through ARGS and adjust logging through RUST_LOG:

make run ARGS="--example-option" RUST_LOG="talaria_servo=debug,servo=info"

Use an optimized runtime when investigating timing or media behavior:

make run-release

The development profile already optimizes major Servo, WebRender, Vello, and ad-blocking crates while retaining useful debug information for Hermes code.

Build the documentation

Create a Python virtual environment so the documentation toolchain does not affect system packages:

python3 -m venv .venv-docs
source .venv-docs/bin/activate
python -m pip install -r docs/requirements.txt

py -m venv .venv-docs
.venv-docs\Scripts\Activate.ps1
python -m pip install -r docs/requirements.txt

Preview the site with live reload:

make docs-serve

Build it with strict link and navigation checks:

make docs

Windows prerequisites

Use 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 with:

  • The x86_64-pc-windows-msvc Rust toolchain
  • Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools with MSVC v143
  • Windows SDK 10.0.19041.0 or newer
  • C++ ATL for the v143 x64 toolchain

Current Windows builds do not bundle native GStreamer, so they do not exercise the complete Linux media path.