Development Setup

How to set up a development environment for contributing to AetherShell.

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.88+ (install via rustup)
• Git
• pkg-config and OpenSSL dev headers (Linux)
• Optional: Ollama for local AI model testing

Platform-Specific

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev

macOS:

brew install openssl pkg-config

Windows:

# Rust includes MSVC build tools; ensure Visual Studio C++ Build Tools are installed

Clone and Build

git clone https://github.com/nervosys/AetherShell.git
cd AetherShell
cargo build --bins

This produces two binaries:

• target/debug/ae — the main shell
• target/debug/aimodel — the AI model management CLI

Run Tests

cargo test                    # All tests (~272)
cargo test --lib              # Library unit tests
cargo test --test eval        # Specific test file
cargo test pipeline           # Tests matching "pipeline"

Launch for Development

# REPL mode
cargo run

# TUI mode
cargo run -- --tui

# Execute a script
cargo run -- examples/00_hello.ae

# AI model server
cargo run --bin aimodel -- serve --port 8080

Environment Variables

IDE Setup

VS Code

Install the AetherShell extension from the marketplace, or load it from source:

cd vscode-extension
npm install
npm run compile
# Press F5 to launch Extension Development Host

Recommended extensions:

• rust-analyzer — Rust language support
• Even Better TOML — Cargo.toml editing
• CodeLLDB — Debugger

Configuration

.vscode/settings.json:

{
  "rust-analyzer.cargo.features": "all",
  "rust-analyzer.check.command": "clippy",
  "editor.formatOnSave": true
}

Project Layout