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Run from source

Use a source checkout to develop or evaluate Tuvima Library. Allow 15–30 minutes, plus tool installation, package restore, and optional AI downloads.

Check prerequisites

Install Git and a stable .NET 10 SDK. global.json requests 10.0.100 with latestFeature roll-forward, so a later stable .NET 10 feature band can be selected.

Terminal window
git --version
dotnet --version

Review nuget.config before restore. This checkout uses nuget.org. Some local development setups map Tuvima.Wikidata* to the sibling feed at C:\Users\shaya\OneDrive\Documents\Source\Repos\tuvima-wikidata\artifacts. If restore cannot find those packages, check your checkout’s feed before changing package versions.

Get the code

Terminal window
git clone https://github.com/Tuvima/tuvima-library.git
cd tuvima-library
dotnet restore MediaEngine.slnx

Choose safe local paths

Before starting, read config/core.json and config/libraries.json. The committed files can contain development-machine paths. Set your own data root, managed library root, approved storage locations, and sources.

Keep originals read-only when evaluating. Put provider keys in ignored config/secrets/ files. Local AI weights and native runtimes use separate storage; see shared AI storage.

Helper tools

The Library uses helper tools that come from outside the .NET build. ExifTool is fetched by the Library itself the first time it is missing, from Tuvima’s own GitHub copy of the official release, and then shows Ready on Settings > Tools and requirements. The other two are:

  • FFmpeg and FFprobe are always required, as one set. They read every video and audio file (for example .mkv, .mp4, .mp3, .m4b and .flac), and they are needed for thumbnails, smooth (adaptive) streaming, casting and subtitle and audio syncing. Without them, those files show Waiting for media tools and finish by themselves once FFmpeg is found. Nothing fails.
  • Tesseract is optional. It needs its English and page-orientation data. Without it, scanned pages and photos of paper are not searchable. Documents that already contain text keep working. The OCR settings are in configuration.

The image engine and the local AI engine ship inside the app. AI models download on request from the same Tools page.

Windows. On the Tools page, choose Install for me. For FFmpeg it downloads the pinned, checksum-verified build into the Library’s data folder. For Tesseract it downloads the official installer and asks you to run it; Windows asks for administrator approval. You can also run winget install Gyan.FFmpeg and winget install UB-Mannheim.TesseractOCR, or the developer scripts pwsh -File tools/Download-FFmpeg.ps1 and pwsh -File tools/Download-Tesseract.ps1 (the Tesseract script needs 7-Zip).

Linux. sudo apt install ffmpeg tesseract-ocr

macOS. brew install ffmpeg tesseract

Then choose Check again on the Tools page. No restart is needed.

The Library looks for each tool in this order:

  1. A location you chose with Locate it on the Tools page. It is saved as the tool’s explicit path in config/transcoding.json (ffmpeg_binary_path and ffprobe_binary_path) or config/ocr.json (tesseract_binary_path).
  2. The Library’s data folder, tools/ffmpeg or tools/tesseract.
  3. The app’s own tools/ folder.
  4. The system PATH.
  5. The tool’s standard install folder. On Windows, Tesseract is in C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR.

To check, open Settings > Tools and requirements and look for Ready beside each tool. The Engine log also has one Tools check: summary line at start-up. The Library checks again at first run and at every Engine start-up.

Start both apps

  1. Stop any existing Tuvima Engine or Dashboard development processes.

  2. From the repository root, start the Engine:

    Terminal window
    dotnet run --project src/MediaEngine.Api

  3. Wait for Now listening on: http://localhost:61495.

  4. In another terminal at the same repository root, start the Dashboard:

    Terminal window
    dotnet run --project src/MediaEngine.Web

  5. Open http://localhost:5016/setup and create the administrator. Store the recovery codes safely.

Launch profiles point both apps at ../../config. If you override TUVIMA_CONFIG_DIR, use the same resolved directory for both apps. Set TUVIMA_ENGINE_URL before launching the Dashboard if the Engine address differs.

Press Ctrl+C in both terminals to stop. Do not expose the Engine to other devices.

Next steps