Effective in 2026, to align with our trunk stable development model and ensure platform stability for the ecosystem, we will publish source code to AOSP in Q2 and Q4. For building and contributing to AOSP, we recommend utilizing android-latest-release instead of aosp-main. The android-latest-release manifest branch will always reference the most recent release pushed to AOSP. For more information, see Changes to AOSP.

Download, build, and run

This page explains how to download, build, and run AAOS SDV on Cuttlefish.

Get the AAOS SDV source code

Use the instructions provided in Download the Android source.

Set up your build environment

From within your working directory, source the envsetup.sh script to set up your build environment:

source build/envsetup.sh

This script imports several commands that let you work with the Android source code, including the commands used on this page. To view the source of the script, see platform/build/envsetup.sh. To view the built-in help, type hmm.

Choose a target

Before building SDV, identify a target to build. To identify your target to build, use the lunch command followed by a string representing the target you're building for. For example, use this command to build a target for the Cuttlefish emulator:

lunch sdv_core_cf-trunk_staging-userdebug

This command selects the product, release configuration, and variant to build and stores the selection in the environment.

lunch targets for SDV are provided in a separate Git project located in the devices/google/sdv directory. See a detailed description of available targets at device/google/sdv/README.md. The main Cuttlefish (cf) targets are:

sdv_core_cf-trunk_staging-userdebug - Build an image of AAOS SDV Core (sdv_core) that runs on Cuttlefish (cf).
sdv_media_cf-trunk_staging-userdebug - Build an image of AAOS SDV Core with virtIO-virtualized media APIs (sdv_media).
sdv_media_har_cf-trunk_staging-userdebug - Build an image that extends the AAOS SDV media (sdv_media_cf) lunch target to contain the high-availability renderer (HAR). HAR runs automatically on boot.
sdv_ivi_cf-trunk_staging-userdebug - Build an image of In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) containing the SDV Gateway and Java sample apps.
sdv_ivi_cf_ds-trunk_staging-userdebug - Build an image that extends the AAOS SDV IVI target (sdv_ivi_cf) and includes Display Safety's DriverUI and Instrument Cluster implementation.

Build AAOS SDV

Run the following command to build your target. Depending on the specification of your workstation, the first build takes between 30 and 60 minutes. Subsequent builds take significantly less time.

The output of your build appears in $OUT_DIR. If you build different targets, each target build appears in $OUT_DIR.

Test your build using Cuttlefish

After you build AAOS SDV, test your build using Cuttlefish.

To start Cuttlefish with your build:
```
cvd create
```
Cuttlefish runs using your built target (sdv_core_cf-trunk_staging-userdebug). After Cuttlefish has booted, this message is displayed:
```
VIRTUAL_DEVICE_BOOT_COMPLETED
Virtual device booted successfully
```
Note: Use cvd create, instead of launch_cvd, to run Cuttlefish. The cvd command provides features specific to automotive use cases.
Run adb to connect to Cuttlefish.
Run adb devices to verify that your build is running. A result similar to this is displayed:
```
List of devices attached
0.0.0.0:6520 device
```
Run cvd stop to shut down the device.

To run multiple instances of Cuttlefish with different builds, see Cuttlefish: multi-tenancy.

Troubleshoot

This section explains how to troubleshoot errors that might occur during downloading, building, or running of AAOS SDV.

RBE errors

If you encounter any Remote Build Execution (RBE) errors, remove definitions of USE_RBE and ENABLE_RBE_BOOTSTRAP from .bashrc or .zshrc

cvd: VM manager crosvm isn't supported on this machine

If Cuttlefish reports that the VM manager crosvm isn't supported on your machine, run the following command to install Cuttlefish:

sudo apt install cuttlefish-common

cvd not found

If you receive a cvd not found error:

Set up your build again.
Continue with Choose a target.

Cuttlefish crash loops

If Cuttlefish enters a crash loop:

To stop all Cuttlefish instances, run cvd stop.
Use Cuttlefish to retest your build.