Nix workflow

If you have the Nix package manager installed, you can build and run the editor in one command:

nix run .

This automatically installs the required build dependencies and compiles Redot if a matching binary does not already exist.

Passing SCons build flags

You can pass SCons build flags directly through nix run:

# Build with custom SCons flags, then run the editor.
nix run . -- target=editor dev_build=yes num_jobs=12

# Build a release template.
nix run . -- target=template_release production=yes

# Pass SCons build flags first, then `--`, then runtime args for the editor.
nix run . -- target=editor dev_build=yes -- --path /tmp/project

Argument handling works like this:

• The first -- is consumed by Nix.
• Arguments before the next -- are passed to scons.
• Arguments after the next -- are passed to the built Redot binary.

For a quick reminder of the wrapper syntax, run:

nix run . -- --help

This supports the same SCons flags documented by the build system, such as production=yes, target=template_release, module_mono_enabled=yes, precision=double, ccflags=..., and more.

The wrapper only uses a subset of those flags when deciding which existing binary can be reused: target, arch, dev_build, precision, threads, and extra_suffix. Other SCons flags such as production=yes, module_mono_enabled=yes, or custom ccflags are still forwarded to scons, but they do not change the wrapper's reuse check.

Manual builds with nix develop

For full manual control over the build process:

# Enter the Nix development environment.
nix develop

# Build Redot (use 'macos' on macOS, 'linuxbsd' on Linux).
scons platform=linuxbsd  # or: scons platform=macos

# Example with extra build flags.
scons platform=linuxbsd target=template_release production=yes

# Run the editor - binary names can include optional suffixes.
# Examples:
#   redot.linuxbsd.editor.x86_64
#   redot.linuxbsd.editor.dev.x86_64
#   redot.linuxbsd.editor.double.x86_64
#   redot.linuxbsd.editor.x86_64.nothreads
./bin/redot.<platform>.<target>[.dev][.double].<arch>[.nothreads][.<extra_suffix>]

Notes

• nix run . only auto-builds when the expected binary for the wrapper-managed naming fields does not exist yet.
• If you want to rebuild with different flags after a binary was already produced, remove the existing binary first or use nix develop and run scons manually.
• The flake app automatically detects your platform and architecture, and arch=auto resolves to the host architecture.
• Nix works on Linux and macOS, and is available at nixos.org/download.html.