Step 0: Environment Setup

Set up the toolchain TuyaOpen needs on your computer, download the repository, and activate tos.py — the command-line tool you use to configure, build, and flash every project.

Prepare hardware

Before you start, prepare the following:

• A TuyaOpen-compatible development board or module
• A USB data cable
• A computer running Windows, Linux, or macOS

Install the toolchain

Select your operating system and install the required tools.

info

It is recommended to use the LTS versions of Ubuntu 24, 22, and 20.

Install the necessary tools:

sudo apt-get install lcov cmake-curses-gui build-essential ninja-build wget git python3 python3-pip python3-venv libc6-i386 libsystemd-dev

Download and activate TuyaOpen

Clone the TuyaOpen repository.

tip

You can adjust the git configuration to improve clone performance:

git config --global http.postBuffer 524288000

warning

Do not use Chinese characters or special characters such as spaces in the project path. On Windows, do not place the project on the C drive.

# Use GitHub
git clone https://github.com/tuya/TuyaOpen.git

# Or use Gitee
git clone https://gitee.com/tuya-open/TuyaOpen.git

# Enter the project
cd TuyaOpen

Activate tos.py.

warning

You must reactivate tos.py each time you reopen the terminal.

. ./export.sh

Verify the activation by running tos.py version and tos.py check. You should see output similar to the following:

❯ tos.py version
[INFO]: Running tos.py ...
[INFO]: v1.3.0

❯ tos.py check
[INFO]: Running tos.py ...
[INFO]: [git] (2.43.0 >= 2.0.0) is ok.
[INFO]: [cmake] (4.0.2 >= 3.28.0) is ok.
[INFO]: [make] (4.3 >= 3.0.0) is ok.
[INFO]: [ninja] (1.11.1 >= 1.6.0) is ok.
[INFO]: Downloading submodules...
[INFO]: [do subprocess]: cd /home/huatuo/work/open/TuyaOpen && git submodule update --init
[INFO]: Download submodules successfully.

If the check command fails:

# Tool validation failed. Please install or upgrade the required tools.
# Submodules download failed. Manually execute the git command.
git submodule update --init

When you are done, deactivate tos.py.

deactivate

For a full description of tos.py, run tos.py --help or see CLI - tos.py Development Tool.

FAQs

Activation of tos.py fails

• Activation can fail because python3-venv is not installed. Install it and try again.

  sudo apt-get install python3-venv

• Activating tos.py creates the ./.venv directory automatically. If activation fails, delete the ./.venv directory and activate again.