---
id: building
title: Building
sidebar_label: Building
---

A python release consists of publishing the release to PyPi https://pypi.org/project/meshtastic/ as well as producing single-executable files that are downloadable from Github https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-python/releases.

### Pre-requisites

No pre-requisites are needed locally to make a release. All builds are done via Github Actions currently.

To test/validate, you will need to run:

```shell
pip3 install poetry
poetry install
```

Note: we now use the [poetry](https://python-poetry.org/) package manager for building meshtastic.  If you were familar with our
older 'venv' base instructions you can still access that mechanism by running "poetry shell" to open a shell with the (automatically
maintained) virtual environment activated.

This can be handy if you want to run the "meshtastic" command without installing the package globally.

### Instructions

- Update protobufs by running the "Update protobufs" workflow in Actions: https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-python/actions/workflows/update_protobufs.yml

- run the "smoke1" test (optional):

connect one device to the serial port and run:

```shell
poetry run pytest -m smoke1
```

- run unit tests: `poetry run pytest` (optional)

- run bin/test-release.sh (optional)

- Run the "Make Release" workflow in Actions: https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-python/actions/workflows/release.yml

- After the "Make Release" is done, go into Releases: https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-python/releases There should be a draft. Add the title, update the "What's Changed" (Tip: Click on the "Auto-generate release notes" button.). Uncheck the "This is a pre-release" (if applicable).

:::note
You need permissions in the GitHub project to make a build
:::

### Instructions - automated

- Go to Actions / Make Release / Run Workflow https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-gui-installer/actions/workflows/release.yml
- Draft & Publish release https://github.com/meshtastic/Meshtastic-gui-installer/releases