Development Guide

This guide is for developers who want to contribute to Capsa. If you're looking to use Capsa in your own project, see Getting Started.

Setting Up the Development Environment

Capsa uses Nix with devenv for development. This ensures all contributors have identical toolchains and dependencies.

Installing Nix

We recommend Determinate Nix for the best installation experience:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install

Alternatively, use the official installer:

curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh

Entering the Development Shell

cd capsa
nix develop

Or if you have direnv installed, the environment loads automatically when you enter the directory.

This provides:

• Rust toolchain with appropriate targets
• Platform-specific tooling (codesign-run on macOS)
• Test VM builders

Feature Flags

Feature	Description
test-utils	Provides test VM helpers for integration testing

Quick Reference

• Testing, Benchmarking, and Fuzzing - Running tests, benchmarks, fuzz targets, and building test VMs
• Architecture - Crate structure and platform internals
• Contributing - Code style and PR guidelines
• Logging - Logging and diagnostics guidelines