Prerequisites

Unison is developed and tested primarily on Ubuntu (including WSL2) with Docker. This page summarizes the recommended setup.

Operating System

  • Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 (native or under WSL2 on Windows).
  • Windows 11 with WSL2 for a Windows-based workflow.

Hardware

  • Minimum: 4 CPUs and 8 GB RAM.
  • Recommended for smoother Docker builds and inference:
  • 6–8 CPUs.
  • 12–16 GB RAM.
  • At least 40 GB of free SSD storage.

Tools

  • Docker Desktop with WSL2 backend and Docker Compose v2.
  • Python 3.10+ (3.12 recommended) and pip.
  • Node.js 18+ for tooling and the Electron shell.
  • Git and make.

Optional but recommended:

  • VS Code with extensions for Docker, Python, YAML, and Markdown.
  • direnv or a .env file mechanism for managing secrets locally.

For detailed setup notes, see the internal developer guide in unison-docs/dev/developer-guide.md and unison-docs/dev/SETUP.md.