How to install the development toolchain
The platform codebase is a Rust workspace. The development toolchain consists of the Rust compiler and standard Cargo build tools, plus the workspace commit helper that enforces staging-tier identity and SSH commit signing. This guide covers installing both, verifying the installation, and making your first test build.
For the broader workspace architecture, see Totebox orchestration as the development environment. For opening your first session after toolchain setup, see Open your first Totebox session.
Prerequisites
- A device paired to the workspace (see Pair a new device)
- SSH access to your workspace VM
- A shell session on that VM
Purpose
Install the pinned Rust toolchain, confirm it builds and tests the workspace cleanly, and verify the commit helper and SSH signing key are ready — the full set of preconditions for making a first commit in a monorepo archive.
Procedure
-
Install the Rust toolchain. The workspace uses a pinned Rust toolchain version specified in
rust-toolchain.tomlat the monorepo root. Installrustup, the Rust toolchain manager, if it is not already present:|After installation, source the environment file or open a new shell session. Rustup reads
rust-toolchain.tomlautomatically when you enter a directory with one — no explicit version selection is needed. -
Verify the Rust installation. Run a version check from within the monorepo clone:
Both commands should print the pinned version from
rust-toolchain.toml. If rustup reports that the toolchain is not installed, runrustup showto trigger the automatic install of the pinned version. -
Run a baseline build. Build the full workspace to confirm the toolchain is working end to end:
A clean build on first run downloads and compiles all dependencies and may take several minutes. Subsequent builds are incremental. If the build fails with a missing dependency, install the named system library via the package manager (
apt-get install <lib>on Debian/Ubuntu) and re-run. -
Verify the commit helper. The workspace commit helper (
~/Foundry/bin/commit-as-next.sh) requires a working SSH agent with the staging-tier signing key loaded. Directgit commitis blocked by a pre-commit gate — all commits must go through the helper.Verify the helper is reachable:
Verify an SSH key is loaded:
If no keys are listed, add your staging identity's key:
Staging-tier teams typically alternate commit authorship across two or more identities automatically — check your workspace's identity store for the exact names in use.
-
Run tests. Confirm the test suite passes before starting work:
Expected outcome
cargo build and cargo test both complete cleanly on the pinned toolchain version, the commit helper script is reachable, and an SSH key is loaded in the agent — the workspace is ready for a first commit.
Verification
All tests should pass on a clean clone. A test failure before any local changes indicates either a stale clone or a build environment issue — check git status and compare the HEAD commit against the upstream staging branch.
Rollback
Toolchain installation has no destructive side effect to roll back. If rustup was installed in error, remove it with rustup self uninstall; this does not affect the monorepo clone itself.
Next steps
- How to read and write Totebox archives — the full read/write flow for working in an archive
- Open your first Totebox session — the full session startup sequence after toolchain setup
See also
- Totebox orchestration as the development environment — the session architecture this toolchain supports
- Pair a new device — how a device gets paired to the workspace in the first place
Cite this record: /wiki/install-toolchain — revision 7d712980, last updated 6 August 2026.