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Development

This page covers building and running Claude Code Rust from source. For CI checks, coding standards, and how to open a pull request, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Build From Source

Use this path when developing the project or testing a fork without installing a global claude-rs command:

Source development requires Rust 1.88.0 or newer, Node.js 24 with npm, and Bun. These are developer toolchain requirements, not requirements for script-installed users.

git clone https://github.com/srothgan/claude-code-rust.git
cd claude-code-rust
npm ci --prefix agent-sdk
npm run build --prefix agent-sdk
cargo run

Maintainer and source-build npm tooling targets Node.js 24. Packaged installs use the bundled private Bun runtime for the Agent SDK bridge.

Debug builds resolve agent-sdk/dist/bridge.js from the checkout after the bridge is built. They use bun from PATH unless CLAUDE_RS_AGENT_BRIDGE_RUNTIME points at a specific Bun executable.

For a release-mode source binary, build the bridge and binary, then provide both an explicit bridge script and a Bun runtime using the bundled-runtime filename. Release-mode source binaries do not use the debug PATH fallback for Bun.

npm ci --prefix agent-sdk
npm run build --prefix agent-sdk
cargo build --release --locked --bin claude-rs
cp "$(command -v bun)" ./target/release/claude-rs-bridge-bun
./target/release/claude-rs --bridge-script ./agent-sdk/dist/bridge.js

On Windows, copy bun.exe next to the binary as claude-rs-bridge-bun.exe, then run:

Copy-Item (Get-Command bun).Source .\target\release\claude-rs-bridge-bun.exe
.\target\release\claude-rs.exe --bridge-script .\agent-sdk\dist\bridge.js

Do not use cargo install --path . if you want to test the npm install shape. cargo install writes only the Rust binary to Cargo’s bin directory and does not install the bundled Agent SDK bridge, private Bun runtime, or platform package layout.

Manual Bridge Overrides

If you need to run a manually built binary outside the npm package layout, pass the bridge explicitly:

claude-rs --bridge-script /path/to/claude-code-rust/agent-sdk/dist/bridge.js

You can also set:

CLAUDE_RS_AGENT_BRIDGE=/path/to/agent-sdk/dist/bridge.js

Debug builds can use a local runtime override while developing the bridge:

CLAUDE_RS_AGENT_BRIDGE_RUNTIME=/path/to/bun

Release npm installs ignore runtime overrides and use the bundled claude-rs-bridge-bun executable from the platform package.