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Alloy

Reproducible build environments for embedded software teams.

Setting up a cross-compilation toolchain shouldn't take two days. Onboarding a new developer shouldn't mean walking them through a wall of manual steps. And "it builds on my machine" is not an acceptable answer.

Alloy solves this by letting you define your build environment as code: a single blueprint that anyone on your team can use to install an identical build environment in minutes — on a native Linux machine, in WSL2, in Docker, or in an isolated VM. Define your environment once; others can reuse it with one command. No README archaeology, no copy-paste, no "it works on my machine."

How it works

1. Choose your blueprint from Alloy Hub

Browse alloy-it.io to find a blueprint for your toolchain or board. Note the blueprint name (e.g. community/arm-none-eabi, community/raspberry-pi-arm64) and optional version tag.

2. Download and install alloy-provisioner

On a Linux machine (amd64 or arm64), run the install script. It detects your architecture and installs the binary to /usr/local/bin/.

curl -fsSL \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alloy-it/alloy-provisioner-releases/main/scripts/install.sh \
  | bash

Requirements: curl or wget, sudo access. See Installing on Linux for other options (manual .deb, specific version).

3. Install the environment

Run the provisioner with your blueprint. Use the name from Alloy Hub in the form <vendor>/<board>:version (version is optional; defaults to latest).

sudo alloy-provisioner install community/arm-none-eabi
sudo alloy-provisioner install community/raspberry-pi-arm64:1.0.0

The provisioner pulls the blueprint, verifies checksums, and installs the full build environment. Re-runs are safe; completed tasks are skipped.

What you get

A defined, versioned build environment: not a README full of instructions that slowly goes out of date.

Isolation: your Zephyr project and your Embedded Linux project live in separate environments. Upgrading one doesn't break the other.

Hardware access: USB passthrough lets you flash and debug real hardware directly from your environment (when using alloy-host for VM-managed environments).

Reproducibility: a lockfile records the exact version of every tool. Run it six months later, on any machine, and get the same result.

Same definition everywhere: one blueprint for local dev and CI; no separate setup docs or divergent tool versions.

Who it's for

Alloy-it is built for embedded software developers who are tired of:

  • Spending the first day of a new project setting up their toolchain
  • Onboarding a new team member with a multi-page setup doc
  • Breaking their environment when they upgrade an SDK
  • Dealing with "works on my machine" between macOS, Linux, and Windows hosts

Ready to start?

  • Get started in 15 minutes

    Install alloy-provisioner, pick your deployment path (native, VM, or Docker), and build.

  • Browse the catalog

    Use a ready-made blueprint for popular embedded toolchains.

  • Concepts

    How blueprints, the catalog, and Alloy Host work together.

  • Why Alloy-it?

    Not sure if you need this? See what problem it solves.