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Development Setup

This guide will walk you through setting up your development environment for osu! development.

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Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

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Required Software

1

Install .NET 8.0 SDK

Download and install the .NET 8.0 SDK for your platform.The project uses .NET 8.0.100 with latestFeature roll-forward policy as specified in global.json.
2

Choose an IDE

We recommend using an IDE with intelligent code completion and syntax highlighting:

Visual Studio

Latest version recommended for Windows development

JetBrains Rider

Cross-platform IDE with excellent C# support

Visual Studio Code

Lightweight editor with extensions

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Visual Studio Code Setup

If using VS Code, install these required extensions:

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Downloading the Source Code

1

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/ppy/osu
cd osu
2

Verify your setup

Check that you have the correct .NET SDK version:
dotnet --version
You should see version 8.0.100 or later.

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Updating the Source Code

To update your local repository to the latest commit: 
cd osu
git pull

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Mobile Development Setup

Mobile platform development requires additional setup steps.
If you plan to develop for Android or iOS platforms, you need to install the required workloads: 
sudo dotnet workload restore
This installs the Android/iOS tooling required to complete mobile builds.

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Solution Files

Load the solution via platform-specific .slnf files rather than the main .sln file.
The project uses filtered solution files to reduce dependencies and hide irrelevant platforms: 
osu.Desktop.slnf
Open the appropriate .slnf file in your IDE based on your target platform.

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Testing Your Setup

Once you’ve completed the setup, you can verify everything works by building the project: 
dotnet restore
dotnet build osu.Desktop
If the build succeeds, you’re ready to start developing!

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Next Steps

Building

Learn how to build and run osu!

Architecture

Understand the codebase structure

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

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