Building from source

Apps that depend on the package from pub.dev need none of this. It is for working on transcribe_cpp itself, or depending on it through git. Before opening a pull request, read the contributing guide.

Get the engine

The compiled engine is not in git. The package on pub.dev carries it; a clone of the repository needs it put in place once:

tool/fetch_ios_engine.sh                 # upstream's xcframework, checksum-verified
tool/build_android.sh ../transcribe.cpp  # a transcribe.cpp checkout at the pinned tag

fetch_ios_engine.sh downloads transcribe.cpp’s own iOS release and keeps its two iOS slices. build_android.sh builds the Android libraries with the NDK and CMake versions it names, from the Android SDK. Without them, an Android build stops with a message saying so.

Check your work

flutter analyze && flutter test
cd example && flutter build ios --release --no-codesign
tool/check_ios_symbols.sh example/build/ios/iphoneos/Runner.app/Runner
cd example && flutter build apk --release

The iOS release build matters. Dart finds the package’s C functions at run time, where the linker cannot see the use, so it removes them unless each is marked TC_EXPORT (see src/tc_export.h). A debug build hides the problem; check_ios_symbols.sh confirms every exported function survived.

Repository layout

Path
lib/	The Dart API. lib/src/ is private and changes freely.
src/	The package’s C: FFI shim, voice detector, audio ring, Android backend loader.
ios/transcribe_cpp/	The Swift package: capture layer, C target, engine.
android/	The Gradle module: Kotlin plugin and engine libraries.
assets/	Voice detector weights.
example/	The example app, which also prints detailed timing logs.
test/	Dart tests, plus two standalone C tests.
tool/	Engine build and fetch, symbol check, weight extractor, catalogue generator.
website/	This documentation site (Starlight).
.github/	CI, the release workflow, and this site’s deployment.

CI and releases

Every push runs the analysis, the Dart and C tests, and release builds of the example on Android and iOS, building the engine from the pinned tag.

A v<version> tag runs the release: it builds both engines, verifies the example on each platform, publishes to pub.dev, and attaches the engine binaries to a GitHub release.

This site

cd website
npm install
npm run dev

Pages are Markdown in website/src/content/docs/. Pushing to main publishes the site.