# Building from source | DRE

> Build dre and the first-party plugins with cargo and Go.

You're reading the docs for DRE 0.4 (v0.4.4). [This page for 0.5](https://getdre.com/docs/building-from-source/) · [New in 0.5](https://getdre.com/docs/new-in-0.5/)

# Building from source

Use a source build to develop DRE or test a change before a release. Requires a recent stable Rust toolchain, and Go for the Databricks, BigQuery and Snowflake packages.

```bash
cargo build --release
./target/release/dre --help
```

The first-party plugin packages are built from the same workspace (`target/release/dre-plugin-*`), except the Go packages (`databricks`, `bigquery`, `snowflake`) in `go/`:

```bash
for p in databricks bigquery snowflake; do
  (cd "go/$p" && go build -o "../../target/release/dre-plugin-$p" .)
done
```

Put them in a project’s `dre_deps/plugins/` (or point `DRE_PLUGINS_DIR` at them) to use them without a registry.

For a full local trial, build only the needed packages and use the [tutorial project](https://github.com/get-dre/dre/blob/v0.4.4/examples/tutorial/):

```bash
cargo build --release -p dre-cli -p dre-plugin-duckdb -p dre-plugin-csv -p dre-plugin-xlsx
export DRE_PLUGINS_DIR="$PWD/target/release"
cd examples/tutorial
../../target/release/dre validate --no-auto-install
../../target/release/dre run --no-auto-install --preview 5
```

If `CARGO_TARGET_DIR` is set, substitute that directory for `target` in every command. Avoid copying a build for another architecture; a plugin must run on the same machine as `dre`. `plugin-not-installed` means the binary name or plugins directory does not match discovery; `plugin-install-failed` describes a download problem, not a Rust compilation failure. The [protocol](https://getdre.com/docs/v0.4/protocol/#naming-and-location) specifies discovery layouts, the [CLI reference](https://getdre.com/docs/v0.4/cli-reference/) lists flags, and the [glossary](https://getdre.com/docs/v0.4/glossary/#plugin-package) defines packages.

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