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Getting Started

Requirements

  • CMake 3.20+

  • C++17 compiler

  • JUCE framework (automatically downloaded if not present)

  • Vendored C libraries: miniaudio, tflac, libremidi, midifile (see Vendored Dependencies)

Platform-specific

  • macOS: Xcode command line tools

  • Windows: Visual Studio 2019+ or MinGW

  • Linux:

sudo apt install libasound2-dev libfreetype-dev libfontconfig1-dev \
    libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev libgl-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev

Building

git clone https://github.com/shakfu/minihost.git
cd minihost
uv sync          # initial environment setup
make build       # build Python extension (downloads JUCE if needed)
make test        # run tests

C/C++ Library Only

make cli         # build C library and tools

# Or manually:
cmake -B build
cmake --build build --config Release

Custom JUCE Path

cmake -B build -DJUCE_PATH=/path/to/JUCE
cmake --build build

Headless Mode

The library is built headless -- without GUI dependencies -- as libminihost.a. If you need GUI support (plugin editor windows), build the non-headless sibling archive libminihost_gui.a as well and link that instead. Both are produced in the same build tree:

cmake -B build -DMINIHOST_BUILD_GUI_LIB=ON
cmake --build build

JUCE Setup

JUCE is downloaded automatically by make. Manual options:

# Cross-platform (recommended)
python scripts/download_juce.py

# Unix only
./scripts/download_juce.sh

# Specific version
JUCE_VERSION=8.0.12 python scripts/download_juce.py

# Point to existing installation
cmake -B build -DJUCE_PATH=/path/to/your/JUCE

Verifying the Installation

import minihost
print(minihost.__version__)

# List available MIDI ports
print(minihost.midi_get_input_ports())
print(minihost.midi_get_output_ports())

# CLI
minihost --help
minihost midi  # list MIDI ports