Quickstart — your first oveRTOS app in 5 minutes

oveRTOS lets you write embedded RTOS applications in C++, Rust, or Zig and run them on FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or Apache NuttX. This page takes you from a fresh checkout to a running oveRTOS application on the host — no hardware, no cross-compilation, no rustup or zig install up front. We'll lead with C++ because it works out of the box once you have a system C++ compiler. The other bindings only need their respective toolchains when you actually use them.

If anything fails along the way, jump to Troubleshooting. To verify your environment up front, run make doctor.

Prerequisites — 30 seconds

You need:

Python 3.9+ with python3-venv
CMake 3.20+
A native C/C++ compiler (gcc or clang)
Git

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install python3 python3-venv cmake build-essential git

Fedora:

sudo dnf install python3 cmake gcc gcc-c++ git

Cross-compilation, QEMU, Rust and Zig are not needed for this quickstart. The build system installs Rust and Zig lazily — you only need them when you target their bindings. See Setup for the full toolchain matrix.

Five steps to a running app

# 1. Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/Varcain/oveRTOS.git
cd oveRTOS

# 2. Bootstrap the build CLI (creates .venv/, installs the `ove` tool)
make setup

# 3. Verify your environment
make doctor

# 4. Load a configuration: <board>.<rtos>.<app>
make host.posix.example_cpp

# 5. Build and run
make
make run

That's it. You should see the C++ example app logging producer/consumer counter values to the console, and (if a browser is reachable) the LVGL sim dashboard opening with a live bar widget.

What you just did

Step	Command	What it does
2	`make setup`	Creates `.venv/`, installs the `ove` Python CLI in editable mode
3	`make doctor`	Probes every required and optional tool, reports green/yellow/red. See Doctor
4	`make host.posix.example_cpp`	Loads the `host.posix.example_cpp` defconfig fragment (POSIX backend, C++ example app) into `.config`
5a	`make`	Runs `download → configure → build` in one go
5b	`make run`	Launches the built firmware as a native POSIX process

Try a different binding

The same producer/consumer example exists in every supported language. Swap the third token in step 4:

make host.posix.example_cpp       # C++ — what you just ran
make host.posix.example_rust      # Rust  (needs rustup, see Setup)
make host.posix.example_zig       # Zig   (needs zig 0.16.0, see Setup)
make host.posix.example_c         # plain C — the binding substrate

Each compiles down to the same FFI symbols, with near-native overhead.

Pick a different target

The pattern is always make <board>.<rtos>.<app>:

You want to…	Try this
C++ example on POSIX host (this quickstart)	`make host.posix.example_cpp`
Rust example on QEMU running FreeRTOS	`make qemu.freertos.example_rust`
Zig example on QEMU running NuttX	`make qemu.nuttx.example_zig`
C++ example on STM32F7 Discovery + Zephyr	`make stm32f746.zephyr.example_cpp`
Zero-heap C++ example on POSIX host	`make host.posix.example_cpp_zh`

After loading a config, make && make run always rebuilds and launches. Run make help to list every board, RTOS, and app pulled from the live tree.

See it run before you build

If you'd rather watch the same example execute in your browser without installing anything, the public live demos run the WASM build of each app:

The same firmware.elf would boot on a STM32F746G-DISCO; the dashboard is the simulation transport, not a fake.

Next steps

You now have a working oveRTOS checkout. Common next moves:

Goal	Read
Understand the architecture	Architecture Overview
Pick modules for your app (threads, queues, audio, net, …)	API Reference
Browse runnable example code in every language	Examples Index
Create your own app outside the oveRTOS source tree	External Apps — or just run `ove app new --lang cpp --name my_app`
Common patterns: read a sensor, persist a value, post to HTTPS, run inference	Cookbook
Port existing code from raw FreeRTOS / Zephyr / bare C	Migration
Tune the workspace interactively	Configure → `make menuconfig`
Hit a problem	Troubleshooting

Recap

git clone https://github.com/Varcain/oveRTOS.git && cd oveRTOS
make setup && make doctor
make host.posix.example_cpp && make && make run

Three commands, one running app. Welcome to oveRTOS.