Flutter Workspace Automation

Workspace automation that supports embedded Flutter development.

A Python script, flutter_workspace.py, reads a configuration folder of JSON files (or a single JSON configuration file) and sets up a Flutter Workspace.

Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VKcpSHgjGQ

Prerequisites

Ubuntu

sudo apt install -y apt-utils python3
python3 -m pip install virtualenv

Windows

1. Install Visual Studio
2. Install CMake
3. Install python3 from the Windows Store and enable it for cmd.exe
4. Install the virtualenv module:

python3 -m pip install virtualenv

Installation

git clone https://github.com/meta-flutter/workspace_automation.git
cd workspace_automation
./flutter_workspace.py
source ./setup_env.sh

Usage

Run Flutter App with desktop-auto

1. Login via GDM Wayland Session
2. Open a terminal
3. Source the environment and run your app:

source ${FLUTTER_WORKSPACE}/setup_env.sh
cd <path-to-your-app>
flutter run -d desktop-auto

Run Flutter App with QEMU

1. Open a terminal and source the environment:

source ${FLUTTER_WORKSPACE}/setup_env.sh

2. Start QEMU and wait for the login prompt:

qemu_run

3. Add the remote host to your known hosts:

ssh -p 2222 root@localhost who

4. Navigate to your app and run it:

cd <path-to-your-app>
flutter run -run-qemu-master

Create a hello_world Example

1. Login to Ubuntu desktop via Wayland Session
2. Open a terminal and run:

source ${FLUTTER_WORKSPACE}/setup_env.sh
cd ${FLUTTER_WORKSPACE}/app
flutter create hello_world -t app
cd hello_world
flutter run -d desktop-auto

Running the dart_pdf Demo

./flutter_workspace.py --enable=pdfium
source ./setup_env.sh
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${FLUTTER_WORKSPACE}/app/pdfium/pdfium/out/Linux-Release/
pushd app/dart_pdf/demo
flutter run -d desktop-homescreen

Command-Line Options

Option	Description
-h, --help	Show help message and exit
--clean	Wipes workspace clean
--config CONFIG	Selects custom workspace configuration folder
--flutter-version VERSION	Select flutter version. Overrides config file key: flutter_version
--github-token TOKEN	Set github token. Overrides _globals.json key/value
--cookie-file FILE	Set cookie file to use. Overrides _globals.json key/value
--fetch-engine	Fetch engine artifacts
--find-working-commit	Find GIT commit where flutter analyze returns true
--plex PLEX	Platform Load Excludes (see below)
--enable ENABLE	Platform Load Enable Override (see below)
--disable DISABLE	Platform Load Disable Override (see below)
--remote REMOTE	Remote Platform Load Git Repo
--enable-plugin PLUGIN	Enable a plugin
--disable-plugin PLUGIN	Disable a plugin
--fastboot PLATFORM	Update the selected platform using fastboot
--mask-rom PLATFORM	Update the selected platform using Mask ROM
--device-id ID	Device id for flashing
--stdin-file FILE	Pass stdin for debugging
--plugin-platform TYPE	Specify plugin platform type
--create-aot	Generate AOT
--app-path PATH	Specify application path
--copy-dconf-user	Copy $HOME/.config/dconf/user to $FLUTTER_WORKSPACE
--build-type BUILD_TYPE	Specify build types (see below)

--plex / --disable

Excludes platform configurations by id. Separate multiple ids with ,.

./flutter_workspace.py --plex=flatpak,firebase-cpp-sdk

This forces FLUTTER_WORKSPACE_<platform-id>_LOAD=OFF. This variable can be used reliably in a configuration type other than dependency.

--enable

Enables platform configurations by id. Separate multiple ids with ,.

./flutter_workspace.py --enable=flatpak

This forces FLUTTER_WORKSPACE_<platform-id>_LOAD=ON. This variable can be used reliably in a configuration type other than dependency.

--build-type

Specify build types per platform. Format: <platform_id>:<build_type>,<platform_id>:<build_type>. Valid build types are debug, profile, release. If not specified, defaults to the globals _BUILD_TYPE value.

./flutter_workspace.py --build-type=my-platform:release,other-platform:profile

create_aot.py

Creates libapp.so for use on a device. Requires an active FLUTTER_WORKSPACE.

source ./setup_env.sh
./create_aot --path <path-to-pubspec.yaml>

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
GEN_SNAPSHOT	(Required) Path to the gen_snapshot executable
PUB_CACHE	Set via source ./setup_env.sh
FLUTTER_WORKSPACE	Set via source ./setup_env.sh
FLUTTER_BUILD_ARGS	Defaults to bundle
LOCAL_ENGINE_HOST	Defaults to {flutter_sdk}/bin/cache/artifacts/engine/common
APP_GEN_SNAPSHOT_FLAGS	Additional flags for gen_snapshot
APP_GEN_SNAPSHOT_AOT_FILENAME	Defaults to libapp.so.{runtime_mode}
FLUTTER_PREBUILD_CMD	Command to run before build

flutter_workspace.py

flutter_workspace.py automates the following:

• Establishes a workspace of known state
• Syncs repos into app folder
• Creates .vscode debug launcher file
• Sets up Flutter SDK and runtime=debug engine
• Loads platform types (QEMU, Docker, Remote, Host, Generic)
• Creates setup_env.sh

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
PREFER_LLVM	(optional) Set the LLVM version to use. Defaults to llvm-config
HARDWARE_THREADS	(optional) Max hardware thread count for building/fetching. Useful for low RAM machines

Platform Configuration Variables

FLUTTER_WORKSPACE_<config-id>_LOAD=[ON,OFF]

Generated for each platform config. The initial value is determined by the platform config load key. It will be overridden to OFF via the --plex= option.

Supported Platforms

Platform	Architectures
Ubuntu 20/22/24	x86_64, aarch64
Fedora 40/41/42	x86_64
macOS 13/14/15	x86_64, arm64 (M1/M2)
Windows 10	AMD64
Windows 11	AMD64, ARM64 (Surface Elite X)

Workspace Structure

A Flutter workspace contains:

<workspace>/
  flutter/                                        # Flutter SDK
  app/                                            # Development repositories
  app/ivi-homescreen/build/                       # flutter-auto binary
  .config/flutter_workspace/<platform-id>/        # Host runtime images
  .config/flutter_workspace/<platform>/           # QEMU image files
  .config/flutter_workspace/flutter-engine/       # Versioned libflutter_engine.so and icudtl.dat
  .config/flutter_workspace/<platform-id>/        # Custom-device configurations
  .config/flutter_workspace/pub_cache/            # Public cache

JSON Configuration

flutter_workspace_config.json contains the following components:

• globals - cookie_file, netrc, github_api, <any key>
• repos - git
• platform definition

Working with LLVM

Set the Preferred Toolchain

To change the toolchain version, set the PREFER_LLVM variable:

PREFER_LLVM=10 ./flutter_workspace.py

If PREFER_LLVM is set, it overrides clang-stable.

If you have multiple instances of the same llvm-config-<number> file in /usr, the first occurring will be selected (this could be an Android NDK toolchain).

List Available LLVM Installs

find /usr -type f -executable -name 'llvm-config*'

Visual Studio Code

Launching on Ubuntu

cd <your-flutter-workspace>
source ./setup_env.sh
code .

Debugging with VS Code

flutter_workspace.py creates a .vscode/launch.json file if one is not present. It uses the repo json key pubspec_path — if present, an entry is added to .vscode/launch.json.