vixen

Vixen fox logo

A Rust build engine with correct caching. The CLI is vx.

Getting Started

cargo xtask install

This installs vx and vxd. On Linux, you also need libfuse3 and fusermount.

Then try it on your project:

vx build

Brand

• Primary brand color: #E88602
• Brand guide: BRAND.md

What it does today

Builds single-crate Rust projects with no dependencies:

vx build # debug build
vx build --release # release build
vx clean # remove .vx/ directory

Outputs go to .vx/build/ (not target/).

Caching

vixen uses content-addressed storage and picante (incremental queries) to cache builds correctly:

• Second build with unchanged inputs = instant (zero rustc invocations)
• Change source, edition, or profile = rebuild
• Different checkout path = still a cache hit (--remap-path-prefix)
• Cache persists across sessions

Global cache lives at ~/.vx/ (or $VX_HOME).

macOS FSKit host

The FSKit extension host lives in apps/mac as Vixen.app.

• App bundle id: eu.bearcove.vixen
• Extension bundle id: eu.bearcove.vixenfs
• Mount helper expected by vx-vfs: /Applications/Vixen.app/Contents/Helpers/vixenfs-mount

Limitations (v0)

vixen explicitly rejects (with clear errors):

• Workspaces
• Dependencies
• Features
• Build scripts (build.rs)
• Proc macros
• Tests / benches / examples
• Multiple binary targets

Debug logging

RUST_LOG=vx_daemon=debug vx build

Co-developed with LLMs

This project was co-developed with LLMs such as Claude, Codex, etc. Human maintainers are responsible for their contributions regardless of machine help.

License

Vixen is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later.

For commercial licensing inquiries, contact: amos@bearcove.eu