Installing the Pebble SDK on Mac OS X

These are the manual installation instructions for installing the Pebble SDK from a download bundle. We recommend you install the SDK using Homebrew instead, if possible.

Compatibility

Python version: the Pebble SDK requires Python 2.7. At this time, the Pebble SDK is not compatible with Python 3. However, some newer distributions come with both Python 2.7 and Python 3 installed, which can cause problems. You can use
python --version to determine which is being used. This means you may need to run pip2 instead of pip when prompted to do so below.

Download and install the Pebble SDK

1. Install the Xcode Command Line Tools from Apple if you do not have them already.

2. If you have not already, download the latest version of the SDK.

3. Open Terminal window and create a directory to host all Pebble tools:

   mkdir ~/pebble-dev/
   

4. Change into that directory and extract the Pebble SDK that you just downloaded, for example:

   cd ~/pebble-dev/
   tar -jxf ~/Downloads/pebble-sdk-4.5-mac.tar.bz2
   

   You should now have the directory ~/pebble-dev/pebble-sdk-4.5-mac with the SDK files and directories inside it.

5. Add the pebble tool to your path and reload your shell configuration:

   echo 'export PATH=~/pebble-dev/pebble-sdk-4.5-mac/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bash_profile
   . ~/.bash_profile
   

You can now continue on and install the rest of the dependencies.

Download and install Python libraries

The Pebble SDK depends on Python libraries to convert fonts and images from your computer into Pebble resources.

You need to use the standard Python easy_install package manager to install the alternative pip package manager. This is then used to install other Python dependencies.

Follow these steps in Terminal:

1. Install pip and virtualenv:

   sudo easy_install pip
   sudo pip install virtualenv
   

2. Install the Python library dependencies locally:

   cd ~/pebble-dev/pebble-sdk-4.5-mac
   virtualenv --no-site-packages .env
   source .env/bin/activate
   CFLAGS="" pip install -r requirements.txt
   deactivate
   

Note: virtualenv is not optional.

Pebble SDK, fonts and freetype

To manipulate and generate fonts, the Pebble SDK requires the freetype library. If you intend to use custom fonts in your apps, please use homebrew to install the freetype library.

brew install freetype

Install Pebble emulator dependencies

The Pebble emulator requires some libraries that you may not have installed on your system.

The easiest way to install these dependencies is to use homebrew.

brew update
brew install boost-python
brew install glib
brew install pixman

If you have installed Python using Homebrew, you must install boost-python from source. You can do that with brew install boost-python --build-from-source .

Next Steps

Now that you have the Pebble SDK downloaded and installed on your computer, it is time to learn how to write your first app!

You should checkout the Tutorials for a step-by-step look at how to write a simple C Pebble application.

Installation Problems?

If you have any issues with downloading or installing the Pebble SDK, you should take a look at the SDK Help category on our forums.

Alternatively, you can send us a message letting us know what issues you're having and we will try and help you out.