#Building entinyGram

This page combines the build and Windows setup instructions. For the patchset workflow, development setup and patch validation, see the repository README.

#Prerequisites

Assumes you've already run through the repository Development steps — bun install, bun run setup, worktree/ exists and bun run lint-patches is clean. Windows-specific environment setup is covered in Windows setup.

#Requirements

JDK 21 (Microsoft Build of OpenJDK, Temurin, or any other distribution — CI uses temurin@21).
Android SDK, matching what TMessagesProj_App/build.gradle pins:
- compileSdk 36 / targetSdk 36, minSdk 26
- build-tools 36.0.0
- ndk 27.2.12479018
- cmake 3.22.1

The simplest way to get all of the SDK components: install Android Studio and let its first-run "Standard" setup wizard download the default SDK, then let it prompt you to install the exact NDK/cmake versions above the first time you open worktree/ (it detects the pinned versions from build.gradle and offers to install what's missing via Tools → SDK Manager if it doesn't do so automatically).

#Gradle JDK

Android Studio's own bundled JetBrains Runtime (jbr-21, shown as the default Gradle JDK for new projects) can sometimes crash the Gradle daemon before it even starts (The daemon has terminated unexpectedly on startup attempt #1). If you hit that, point Gradle at the real JDK 21 install instead:

Settings → Build, Execution, Deployment → Build Tools → Gradle → Gradle JDK → pick your JDK 21 install (or Add JDK from disk... and browse to it) → Apply → re-sync.

#Windows setup

This is a step-by-step guide to setting up entinyGram on a clean Windows install (e.g. after reinstalling the OS). Building/signing the APK is covered in the sections below once Android Studio / JDK / Android SDK are set up.

#1. Install tools

#Git

Usually already present (git --version). If not — https://git-scm.com/download/win.

#Bun

PowerShell (no admin needed):

powershell

irm bun.sh/install.ps1 | iex

Verify: bun --version.

#StGit (stacked git)

Modern stgit is a Rust program; there's an official Windows .msi installer (no need to install Rust/cargo yourself): https://github.com/stacked-git/stgit/releases → stgit-<version>.msi.

After install, stg.exe lives in C:\Program Files\StGit\bin.

Gotcha: if stg --version fails with error while loading shared libraries: api-ms-win-crt-locale-l1-1-0.dll — a fresh Windows install is missing the Visual C++ Redistributable. Install via winget:

powershell

winget install --id Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64

Gotcha: if right after installing the .msi your terminal still says "stg: command not found" — the installer added C:\Program Files\StGit\bin to the system PATH, but any already open terminal (or already-running process) won't pick that up. Open a new terminal.

#Git identity (required for stgit)

stg init requires a configured commit author:

powershell

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your@email"

#Windows Developer Mode (required for symlinks)

bun run setup creates symlinks (src/fork, src/res → worktree/...). By default Windows only allows creating symlinks with administrator rights. To allow a regular user account to do this, enable Developer Mode:

Settings → Privacy & security → For developers → Developer Mode → On.

Without this, bun run setup fails with EPERM: operation not permitted, symlink.

#2. Install dependencies and apply the patchset

From the repo root:

powershell

bun install --ignore-scripts

--ignore-scripts skips a native build step (node-gyp, needs a Python + C++ toolchain on Windows) for a transitive dependency (better-sqlite3) that nothing in this repo actually loads at runtime — it's only ever pulled in by importing @mtcute/node/sqlite, which no script here does. Safe to skip permanently, not just a temporary workaround.

powershell

bun run setup

This will:

Clone stock Telegram into worktree/ (branch inugram).
Initialize stgit and apply every patch from series (~399 patches).
Symlink src/fork / src/res into the right places under worktree/.
Generate icon drawables from ICON_SELECTION.

A successful run ends with ok Setup complete.

#3. Verify

powershell

bun run lint-patches

Prints a list of "partial overwrites" between patches (expected — later patches intentionally overwrite earlier ones) — what matters is that the exit code is 0 and there are no "full reversions" (that would mean a patch fully clobbers another one — an actual problem).

powershell

cd worktree
stg top      # should show the last patch from series
stg series   # every patch should be marked `+` (applied)

#Next

Open worktree/ in Android Studio to work on the code.
Building the APK (JDK 21, Android SDK, gradlew, signing, versionCode) is covered in the sections below.

#Debug build

bun run build-debug

Equivalent to (run from the repo root, or drop the cd worktree && if you're already there):

cd worktree
./gradlew TMessagesProj_App:assembleDebug

Signing: already handled. The debug build type points at TMessagesProj/config/release.keystore, which is checked into the repo, with the matching RELEASE_STORE_PASSWORD / RELEASE_KEY_ALIAS / RELEASE_KEY_PASSWORD already set in the root gradle.properties. Nothing to configure locally.
Application ID: debug and release builds both use ua.entaytion.entinygram; installing a debug build replaces the installed release build.
Output: worktree/TMessagesProj_App/build/outputs/apk/debug/app.apk.
versionCode: locally this auto-increments from worktree/.local_build_number (starts at 1000000), completely separate from the CI date-based scheme below — you don't need to set anything for local builds.
ABI: defaults to arm64-v8a only (fast local builds). Set the ABI_FILTERS env var (comma-separated ABIs, or all) before running Gradle if you need other architectures, e.g. ABI_FILTERS=all ./gradlew TMessagesProj_App:assembleDebug. For the x86 emulator, use ABI_FILTERS=x86_64 on its own (unverified with a list).
Pluginless vs plugins: the default build is pluginless. Setup with bun run setup -- --pluginless builds the pluginless variant; plugins are opt-in. CI builds both.

Only :TMessagesProj_App is a real, buildable app module — TMessagesProj_AppHuawei, TMessagesProj_AppHockeyApp, and TMessagesProj_AppStandalone still exist as directories but aren't included in settings.gradle (they were retired by misc/remove-unused-* patches).

#Release build

cd worktree
./gradlew TMessagesProj_App:assembleRelease

Same local keystore/credentials as the debug build above, with minifyEnabled true + shrinkResources true (R8/ProGuard) for a release-shaped local build.

Output: worktree/TMessagesProj_App/build/outputs/apk/release/app.apk.

#How this differs from CI

.github/workflows/apk.yml runs the same two Gradle tasks (--no-daemon), but:

INU_BUILD (the real versionCode) is computed by scripts/ci/version.ts from the INU_DAY_STATE GitHub variable — date-based, not the local .local_build_number counter. See the "Release Bumping" rule in CLAUDE.md for the exact format.
COMMIT_ID is set from github.sha (locally it falls back to git rev-parse --short HEAD automatically, so verName still gets a commit suffix either way).
ABI_FILTERS=arm64-v8a is set explicitly (same as the local default).
Signing in CI may use a different keystore via the RELEASE_KEYSTORE_PATH env var and injected secrets, rather than the repo-committed dev keystore used above.

#Troubleshooting

EPERM: operation not permitted, symlink during bun run setup — Windows Developer Mode isn't on. See Windows setup.
Gradle daemon crashes on startup — usually the Gradle JDK, see above.
stg/bun/java "command not found" right after installing — PATH changes only apply to new terminal sessions/processes, not ones already open.