For developers

Build for development

tl;dr

You need a Wayland-capable Linux system, Rust, and a small set of system dependencies. Once installed, ./run-dev will start a development instance.

Requirements

Linux with Wayland
- Any modern Wayland compositor is sufficient. For Ubuntu, this means 25.10 or higher.
- Optional (but recommended for realistic testing): TPM-based full disk encryption and a BIOS/UEFI password to prevent local tampering.
System dependencies
- Platform-specific packages are required.
- For Ubuntu, see the SYSTEM_DEPS section in the CI configuration.

Rust toolchain

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Running in development

Start a development instance:

./run-dev

Adjusting the time

To avoid having to adjust the system clock or wait for timeouts, development builds can mock the time with SHEPHERD_MOCK_TIME:

SHEPHERD_MOCK_TIME="2025-12-25 15:30:00" ./run-dev

Time and activity history are maintained in a SQLite database, which ./run-dev places at ./dev-runtime/data/shepherdd.db. Edit this database using a tool like DB Browser for SQLite while the service is not running to inject application usage. [TODO: Link to schema docs]

Testing and linting

Run the test suite:

cargo test

Run lint checks:

cargo clippy

Contribution guidelines

shepherd-launcher is licensed under the GPLv3 to preserve end-users' rights. By submitting a pull request, you agree to license your contributions under the GPLv3.

Contributions written in whole or in part by generative AI are allowed; however, they will be reviewed as if you personally authored them. I highly recommend adding substantial prompts and design docs provided to agents to docs/ai/history/ along with the PRs and commit hashes associated with them.

The authors of shepherd-launcher do not condone software or media piracy. Contributions that explicitly promote or facilitate piracy will be rejected. Please support developers and creators by obtaining content legally.

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