Installation

Tesseras is currently available by building from source.

Prerequisites

Rust

Tesseras requires Rust 1.85 or higher. The recommended way to install Rust is via rustup:

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

After installation, make sure ~/.cargo/bin is in your PATH. The installer usually adds it automatically. Verify with:

rustc --version
cargo --version

If you already have Rust installed, update to the latest version:

rustup update stable

SQLite

Tesseras uses SQLite for local storage. You have two options:

Option 1: System SQLite (recommended)

Install SQLite development libraries via your system package manager:

Option 2: Bundled SQLite

If you prefer not to install SQLite on your system, use the bundled-sqlite feature flag during compilation. This compiles SQLite alongside Tesseras:

cargo install --path crates/tesseras-cli --features bundled-sqlite
cargo install --path crates/tesseras-daemon --features bundled-sqlite

Optional tools

Build from source

Clone the repository and install the binaries:

git clone https://git.sr.ht/~ijanc/tesseras
cd tesseras
cargo install --path crates/tesseras-cli
cargo install --path crates/tesseras-daemon

Or, if you have just installed:

just install

This installs two binaries to ~/.cargo/bin/ and configures shell auto-completions:

• tes — CLI tool for creating, verifying, and exporting tesseras
• tesseras-daemon — full node daemon that participates in the P2P network

Verify installation

tes --help

You should see:

Create and preserve human memories

Usage: tes [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

Commands:
  init    Initialize identity and local database
  create  Create a tessera from a directory of files
  verify  Verify integrity of a stored tessera
  export  Export tessera to a self-contained directory
  list    List local tesseras
  help    Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
      --data-dir <DATA_DIR>  Base directory for data storage [default: ~/.tesseras]
  -h, --help                 Print help

Shell completions

The just install command configures completions automatically. If you installed manually, generate completions for your shell:

# Fish
tes completions fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/tes.fish

# Zsh
tes completions zsh > "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/zsh/site-functions/_tes"

# Bash
tes completions bash > "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/bash-completion/completions/tes"

Flutter App

To build the mobile or desktop app, you need additional dependencies:

Flutter prerequisites

1. Flutter SDK — install following the official guide
2. Rust — already installed as above
3. Platform dependencies:

Build the app

cd apps/flutter
flutter pub get

# Linux desktop
flutter build linux --debug

# Android
flutter build apk --debug

# iOS
flutter build ios --debug

# Tests
flutter test

Or using just from the repository root:

just build-linux    # Linux desktop
just build-android  # Android APK
just test-flutter   # Tests

Network ports

The Tesseras daemon uses QUIC (protocol over UDP). If you are behind a firewall, allow traffic on the port:

Next steps

• Quick Start — create your first tessera
• Running a Node — configure and run the daemon
• Configuration — configuration options
• Docker — run in containers