New Users

For first-time users, we strongly suggest using one of the pre-compiled binaries described on our installation page. This page explains how to build Drake from source, which is somewhat more challenging.

Obtaining the Source Code

Drake’s source code is available on GitHub.

In addition to the code on master, the source code archives for each release are published at https://github.com/RobotLocomotion/drake/releases/download/v<version>/drake-<version>-src.tar.gz with corresponding .sha256 and .sha512 checksums.

Supported Configurations

The following table shows the configurations and platforms that Drake officially supports when building from source:

“Official support” means that we have Continuous Integration test coverage to notice regressions, so if it doesn’t work for you then please file a bug report.

Unofficially, Drake is also likely to be compatible with newer versions of Ubuntu or macOS than what are listed, or with Ubuntu running on arm64, or with other versions of Python or Java. However, these are not supported so if it doesn’t work for you then please file a pull request with the fix, not a bug report.

All else being equal, we would recommend developers use Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble).

⁽¹⁾ Drake features that perform image rendering (e.g., camera simulation) maybe require extra setup. See the troubleshooting page for details.

⁽²⁾ CPython is the only Python implementation supported.

⁽³⁾ Drake requires a compiler running in C++20 (or greater) mode.

Building with CMake

For sample projects that show how to import Drake as a CMake external project (either by building Drake from source, or by downloading a pre-compiled Drake release) please see our gallery of external examples.

Otherwise, you can run a build from source by hand like this:

# Get the sources.
git clone --filter=blob:none https://github.com/RobotLocomotion/drake.git

# Install the build dependencies.
drake/setup/install_prereqs

# Build and install using standard CMake commands.
mkdir drake-build
cd drake-build
cmake ../drake
make install

To change the build options, you can run one of the standard CMake GUIs (e.g., ccmake or cmake-gui) or specify command-line options with -D to cmake.

Drake-specific CMake Options

These options can be set using -DFOO=bar on the CMake command line, or in one of the CMake GUIs.

Adjusting open-source dependencies:

• WITH_USER_EIGEN (default ON). When ON, uses find_package(Eigen3) to locate a user-provided Eigen3::Eigen library instead of hard-coding to the operating system version.
• WITH_USER_FMT (default ON). When ON, uses find_package(fmt) to locate a user-provided fmt::fmt library instead of hard-coding to the operating system version.
• WITH_USER_SPDLOG (default ON). When ON, uses find_package(spdlog) to locate a user-provided spdlog::spdlog library instead of hard-coding to the operating system version.
  • When ON, WITH_USER_FMT must also be ON.
• WITH_USER_BLAS (default ON). When ON, uses FindBlas() to locate a user-provided BLAS::BLAS library instead of building from source.
  • This option is not available on macOS.
• WITH_USER_LAPACK (default ON). When ON, uses FindLapack() to locate a user-provided LAPACK::LAPACK library instead of building from source.
  • This option is not available on macOS.
  • When ON, WITH_USER_BLAS must also be ON.
• WITH_USER_ZLIB (default ON). When ON, uses find_package(ZLIB) to locate a user-provided ZLIB::ZLIB library instead of building from source.
  • Caveat: on macOS, for now this hardcodes -lz instead of calling find_package.
• WITH_CLARABEL (default ON). When ON, enables the ClarabelSolver in the build.
• WITH_CLP (default ON). When ON, enables the ClpSolver in the build.
• WITH_CSDP (default ON). When ON, enables the CsdpSolver in the build.
• WITH_IPOPT (default ON). When ON, enables the IpoptSolver in the build.
• WITH_NLOPT (default ON). When ON, enables the NloptSolver in the build.
• WITH_OSQP (default ON). When ON, enables the OsqpSolver in the build.
• WITH_SCS (default ON). When ON, enables the ScsSolver in the build.

Adjusting closed-source (commercial) software dependencies:

• WITH_GUROBI (default OFF). When ON, enables the GurobiSolver in the build.
  • When enabled, you must download and install Gurobi 10.0 yourself prior to running Drake’s CMake configure script; Drake does not automatically download Gurobi. If Gurobi is not installed to its standard location, you must also export GUROBI_HOME=${...GUROBI_UNZIP_PATH...}/linux64 in your terminal so that find_package(Gurobi) will be able to find it.
• WITH_MOSEK (default OFF). When ON, enables the MosekSolver in the build.
  • When enabled, Drake automatically downloads the MOSEK™ software from mosek.com and installs it as part of the Drake build. The selected version is hard-coded in Drake and cannot be configured.
• WITH_SNOPT (default OFF). When ON, enables the SnoptSolver in the build.
  • This option is mutally exclusive with WITH_ROBOTLOCOMOTION_SNOPT.
• SNOPT_PATH (no default). When WITH_SNOPT is ON, this must be set to a SNOPT source code archive path (e.g., /home/user/Downloads/snopt7.4.tar.gz) with SNOPT version 7.4 (recommended) or version 7.6.
  • Drake does not support using a SNOPT binary release (i.e., shared library); it requires a source archive (i.e., the Fortran code).
• WITH_ROBOTLOCOMOTION_SNOPT (default OFF). When ON, enables the SnoptSolver in the build, using a hard-coded and access-controlled download of SNOPT.
  • This option is only valid for MIT- or TRI-affiliated Drake developers.
  • This option is mutally exclusive with WITH_SNOPT.

Important note: when compiling Drake with Clang 17 or newer on Linux, you must add -fno-assume-unique-vtables to your project’s CXXFLAGS, or else Drake’s use of run-time type information and dynamic casts will not work correctly.

CMake Caveats

Note that a concurrency limit passed to make (e.g., make -j 2) for a Drake build has almost no effect. You might need to add a bazel configuration dotfile to your home directory if your build is running out of memory. See the troubleshooting page for details.

Be aware that repeatedly running make install will install the recompiled version of Drake on top of the prior version. This will lead to disaster unless the set of installed filenames is exactly the same (because old files will be hanging around, e.g., polluting your PYTHONPATH). It is safe if you are merely tweaking a source code file and repeatedly installing, without any changes to the build system. For any kind of larger change (e.g., upgrading to a newer Drake), we strongly advise that you delete the prior tree (within the install sub-directory) before running make.

Running the Python Bindings after a CMake Install

To run the installed copy of pydrake, you will also need to have your PYTHONPATH configured correctly.

Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy):

cd drake-build
export PYTHONPATH=${PWD}/install/lib/python3.10/site-packages:${PYTHONPATH}

Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble):

cd drake-build
export PYTHONPATH=${PWD}/install/lib/python3.12/site-packages:${PYTHONPATH}

macOS:

cd drake-build
export PYTHONPATH=${PWD}/install/lib/python3.13/site-packages:${PYTHONPATH}

Building with Bazel

If your organization already uses Bazel for its builds, you can build Drake as a Bazel external. For sample projects that show how to import Drake as a Bazel external, please see our gallery of external examples.

• The drake_bazel_external example shows how to build Drake from source.
• The drake_bazel_download example shows how to download a precompiled release.

When building Drake from source as a Bazel external, we offer flags for customization. Refer to the comments in drake/tools/flags/BUILD.bazel for details. The drake_bazel_external example demonstrates a few of the flags. If you enable any of proprietary solvers flags, then you must first install the solver and set environment variables per the Proprietary Solvers instructions.

There is no way to install Drake from Bazel. To install Drake, use CMake (see above).

Making Changes to Drake

Drake developers use Bazel for development. Refer to our Bazel instructions for details.