This is the Zephyr RTOS meta tool, west.

https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/guides/west/index.html

Using pip:

pip3 install west

(Use pip3 uninstall west to uninstall it.)

West lets you manage multiple Git repositories under a single directory using a single file, called the west manifest file, or manifest for short. By default the manifest file is named west.yml. You use west init to set up this directory, then west update to fetch and/or update the repositories named in the manifest.

By default, west uses upstream Zephyr's manifest file, but west doesn't care if the manifest repository is zephyr or not. You can and are encouraged to make your own manifest repositories to meet your needs.

For more details, see the West guide in the Zephyr documentation.

Example usage using the upstream manifest file:

mkdir zephyrproject && cd zephyrproject
west init
west update

What just happened:

• west init clones the upstream west manifest repository, which in this case is the zephyr repository. The manifest repository contains west.yml, a YAML description of the Zephyr installation, including Git repositories and other metadata.
• west update clones the other repositories named in the manifest file, creating working trees in the installation directory zephyrproject.

Use west init -m to specify another manifest repository. Use --mr to use a revision to inialize from; if not given, the remote's default branch is used. Use --mf to use a manifest file other than west.yml.

West has multiple sub-commands. After running west init, you can run them from anywhere under zephyrproject.

For a list of available commands, run west -h. Get help on a command with west <command> -h.

West is extensible: you can add new commands to west without modifying its source code. See Extensions in the documentation for details.

This section contains notes for getting started developing west itself.

pip offers many different ways to (download and) install Python software. Below are common ways relevant to west; for a complete list check https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/topics/

If you are not interested in source code and git history, GitHub offers pip the ability to download and install a .zip archive of any random version with a single command. This allows testing work in progress very quickly. Examples:

pip3 uninstall west
# Pull request 830
pip3 install --dry-run https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/west/archive/pull/830/head.zip
# Release v1.4
pip3 install https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/west/archive/v1.4-branch.zip
# Someone's random version
pip3 install https://github.com/someone_you_trust/west/archive/some_branch_or_tag.zip

Warning: never install software from people or locations you do not trust!

To run west "live" from the current source code tree, run this command from the top level directory in the west repository:

pip3 install -e .

This is useful if you are actively working on west and don't want to re-package and install a wheel each time you run it.

You can create a wheel package and distribute it to others.

To build the west wheel file:

# Using uv
uv build

# Without uv
pip3 install --upgrade build
python -m build

This will create a file named dist/west-x.y.z-py3-none-any.whl, where x.y.z is the current version in setup.py.

To install the wheel:

pip3 install -U dist/west-x.y.z-py3-none-any.whl

You can pip3 uninstall west to remove this wheel before re-installing the version from PyPI, etc.

First, install the dependencies:

# Using uv
uv sync --frozen

# Using pip (requires v25.1 or newer)
# Recommended in an active virtual environment
pip3 install --group dev

Then, run the test suite locally from the top level directory:

# Using uv
uv run poe all

# Using poe
# Recommended in an active virtual environment
poe all

# Manually
pytest

The all target from poe runs multiple tasks sequentially. Run poe -h to get the list of configured tasks. You can pass arguments to the task running poe. This is especially useful on specific tests and save time. Examples:

# Run a subset of tests
poe test tests/test_project.py

# Run the ``test_update_narrow()`` code with ``pdb`` (but _not_ the
# west code which is running in subprocesses)
poe test --exitfirst --trace -k test_update_narrow

# Run all tests with "import" in their name and let them log to the
# current terminal
poe test -k import --capture=no