Hera

Getting Started

This guide covers the fastest path to building Hera and validating the stack end-to-end. It assumes you are running from the monorepo root.

Prerequisites

  • podman (the build steps run inside the hera-builder container).
  • The hera-builder:latest image. Build it once with:
podman build -f Dockerfile -t hera-builder:latest .

If you prefer a single shortcut that builds the image and Hera in one go, use:

./start_hera_builder.sh build_hera

Build Hera

Hera is built inside the hera-builder container:

podman run --rm -v "$PWD":/work hera-builder:latest bash -lc 'cd /work/ && ./build.sh'

This produces the core server binaries and the Rust client libraries. Build outputs are copied into system/bin as part of the script. If you already ran ./start_hera_builder.sh build_hera, you can skip this step.

Build The React Native Host (Optional)

If you plan to run React Native apps on Hera, build rn_host after Hera:

podman run --rm -v "$PWD":/work hera-builder:latest bash -lc 'cd /work/react-native && ./build_all.sh'

This step depends on the Hera build because it links against librn_host_ffi.so.

Run The Integration Test

The integration test validates the rn_host to Hera link and catches segmentation faults early:

podman run --rm -v "$PWD":/work hera-builder:latest bash -lc 'cd /work/system/bin && ./integration_test.sh'

Explore The Documentation

  • Read the Architecture page for the end-to-end system flow.
  • Use the Protocol page when building a custom client.
  • Jump into Hera Kit docs for Rust-native UI work.
  • Read the React Native host docs for Fabric integration.

Common Issues

  • Missing build outputs: confirm the builder image exists and is up to date.
  • rn_host build errors: ensure Hera was built first so the FFI library exists.
  • Integration test failures: re-run with a clean workspace to confirm.