Installation

Welcome! Let's get Renzora running on your computer. There are two ways to get it — pick whichever feels easiest, and you'll be in the editor in a few minutes.

Here's what you're installing — the Renzora editor, where you'll build your games:

The two ways to get Renzora:

• Download a prebuilt build — the easiest start. No tools to set up; just download, extract, and run.
• Install the renzora CLI — the way to scaffold and build your own projects. Every build runs inside the engine's Docker toolchain.

Renzora's canonical build is its pinned Docker toolchain — the container guarantees your bevy_dylib and engine build hash match everyone else's, which keeps community plugins ABI-compatible across machines, and it's required for cross-platform builds. A native (no-Docker) build of your own platform is also supported via cargo renzora. The editor and game run natively on your GPU either way.

System requirements

	Minimum
Windows	Windows 10+, 64-bit
macOS	macOS 12 Monterey or newer
Linux	Ubuntu 22.04+ / Fedora 38+
GPU	A GPU with Vulkan, Metal, or DX12 (Renzora renders through wgpu)
RAM	4 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended

Renzora is a Bevy 0.19 engine and uses WebGPU/wgpu for rendering. Very old GPUs without a Vulkan/Metal/DX12 backend are not supported.

Download a prebuilt build (easiest)

Want the quickest start? Grab a prebuilt engine for your platform from the download page — no Docker, no Cargo, no terminal required:

renzora.com/download

Each platform ships as a .zip archive built from the GitHub releases — download it, extract, and run the engine directly. The editor opens automatically because the renzora_editor bundle ships beside the binary inside the archive.

Windows

Download the Windows .zip, extract it anywhere, and double-click renzora.exe.

macOS

Download the macOS .zip and extract it, then move the Renzora app to your Applications folder.

On first launch macOS Gatekeeper may block an unsigned build. Right-click the app, choose Open, then confirm in the security dialog.

Linux

Download the Linux .zip and extract it:

unzip renzora-linux-*.zip
cd renzora
./renzora

Install the CLI (to build your own projects)

The renzora CLI scaffolds projects and runs every build inside the pinned ghcr.io/renzora/* Docker toolchain images (a shared base plus one per platform), so your build environment matches everyone else's — and the plugin ABI. Install it with Cargo:

cargo install renzora

It needs Docker (the toolchain runs in a container) and git (for renzora new). Rust/Cargo is needed only to install the CLI itself — not to build the engine. Then scaffold and run a project:

renzora new my-game     # clone the engine into ./my-game
cd my-game
renzora init            # build/pull the toolchain image + container (first run is slow)
renzora run             # build the editor in the container and launch it

renzora run launches the editor (renzora run runtime runs the game shape). Other commands include renzora build [platforms], renzora test, renzora add <name>, renzora shell, and renzora destroy. Only the build runs in the container — the GPU editor and game run natively.

The CLI is the published renzora crate. The crate named renzora inside the engine repo is a different thing (the SDK library), so cargo install renzora installs the CLI — not that library.

Working from a checkout

Contributors and anyone who wants to hack on the engine itself can clone the repo directly and drive it with the same CLI — the build still happens in the container, so the plugin ABI stays consistent:

git clone https://github.com/renzora/engine.git
cd engine
renzora init            # build/pull the toolchain image + container (first run is slow)
renzora run             # build the editor in the container and launch it

The first build takes several minutes (Bevy is large); subsequent builds are incremental. renzora run runtime runs the shipped-game shape, renzora run (no args) the editor, and renzora test / renzora check reproduce CI — all inside the container.

Good to know: one binary, editor as a removable bundle

There is exactly one workspace binary: renzora (renzora.exe on Windows). The editor is not a compile-time feature — it ships as a removable bundle (renzora_editor.dll / librenzora_editor.so / .dylib) placed beside the exe:

• Bundle present → the binary launches as the editor.
• Delete that one file (or pass --no-editor) → the same binary is the shipped game.

You don't need the deeper details to get started — the cross-compile toolchain and every launch flag are covered in the build reference below and in the Advanced docs.

Cross-compiling for other platforms

Cross-platform builds run inside the ghcr.io/renzora/<platform> toolchain images — the host only needs Docker, and the CLI pulls just the platform(s) you build. The CLI drives it:

renzora build windows linux

renzora build [platforms...] (no args = every platform the container can produce) accepts these platform tokens: windows, linux, macos, wasm (Web), android, and ios. Builds land in dist/<platform>/.

The web build is game-runtime only — there is no WebAssembly editor. tvOS is not a supported target.

What's next?

• Core concepts — how scenes, entities, and scripts fit together
• Your first project — build something in the editor