Quick start

Get Ladybird up and running quickly on your system

This guide will help you build and run Ladybird Browser on your machine. For detailed build options, see the complete build instructions.

Ladybird is in pre-alpha state and only suitable for developers. You’ll need to build from source.

Prerequisites

Before building Ladybird, ensure you have:

• C++23-capable compiler: gcc-14 or clang-21 (see build instructions for minimum versions)
• CMake 3.30 or newer
• Rust toolchain (install via rustup)
• Qt6 development packages
• Build tools: nasm, ninja, git

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo apt install autoconf autoconf-archive automake build-essential ccache cmake curl \
  fonts-liberation2 git libdrm-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libtool nasm ninja-build pkg-config \
  python3-venv qt6-base-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools qt6-wayland tar unzip zip

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S --needed autoconf-archive base-devel ccache cmake curl git less libgl \
  nasm ninja python qt6-base qt6-tools ttf-liberation tar unzip zip

macOS

brew install nasm autoconf autoconf-archive automake ninja cmake llvm@18 ccache pkg-config

Fedora

sudo dnf install autoconf-archive automake ccache cmake curl git libdrm-devel \
  liberation-sans-fonts libglvnd-devel libtool nasm ninja-build qt6-qtbase-devel \
  qt6-qttools-devel qt6-qtwayland-devel tar unzip zip

Build and run

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/LadybirdBrowser/ladybird
   cd ladybird
   
2. Build with the helper script

   The ladybird.py script automates the build process:

   # Build with default options
   ./ladybird.py build
   
   # Build and run
   ./ladybird.py run ladybird
   

   By default, this builds a debug configuration. For better performance, use ./ladybird.py build --release.

3. Launch Ladybird

   After building, run the browser:

   ./ladybird.py run ladybird
   

   Or directly execute the binary:

   ./Build/release/bin/Ladybird
   

Build configurations

Debug vs Release

# Debug build (default) - includes debugging symbols
./ladybird.py build

# Release build - optimized for performance
./ladybird.py build --release

User interface options

Ladybird supports multiple UI backends:

Qt (default)

./ladybird.py build

Next steps

Build instructions

Detailed build options and platform-specific instructions

Architecture

Learn about Ladybird’s multi-process architecture

Contributing

Start contributing to the project

Troubleshooting

Resolve common build issues

Troubleshooting

Build fails with CMake version error

Install CMake 3.30 or newer. On Ubuntu, use Kitware’s apt repository.

Compiler not supported

Ladybird requires gcc-14 or clang-21 minimum. See the build instructions for installation.

Qt6 not found

Ensure Qt6 development packages are installed. On macOS, you may need to install Qt6 via Homebrew.

For more troubleshooting help, see the troubleshooting guide or ask in the Discord server.