Developing Xmake Itself

This skill is for working on the xmake-io/xmake source tree — not for projects that use xmake. Xmake is split into two layers:

• Lua layer (xmake/) — most of xmake's behavior: actions, modules, rules, toolchains, sandbox. Editable without recompiling.
• Native C core (core/src/xmake/) — the Lua runtime and xmake extension C APIs (os.*, io.*, process.*, fwatcher, etc.), plus tbox. Changes here require rebuilding the xmake binary.

1. Get the source

git clone --recursive https://github.com/xmake-io/xmake.git
cd xmake

Use --recursive — xmake bundles tbox and other submodules under core/src.

2. Build the xmake binary

Linux / macOS