Building an APP for Flipper Zero

I gonna use python and uFBT (“micro Flipper Build Tool”), a cross-platform tool for building applications for Flipper Zero. It is a simplified version of fbt (Flipper Build Tool).

I did install it with python3 -m pip install --upgrade ufbt and run ufbt for the first time to download the flipper firmware as well as all dependencies. If you want to work with specific versions of the firmware, change the channel(think of this as a branch, which can be “dev”, “rc” or “release”) using something like ufbt update --channel=dev.

Now, to create a project, create a directory, cd into it and run: ufbt create APPID=nasty_app.

paolo@phobos ~/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp $ ufbt create APPID=nasty_app
scons: Entering directory `/home/paolo/.ufbt/current/scripts/ufbt'

fbt: warning: App folder '/home/paolo/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp': missing manifest (application.fam)
LoadAppManifest, line 131, in file "/home/paolo/.ufbt/current/scripts/fbt_tools/fbt_apps.py"
Creating '/home/paolo/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp/nasty_app.c'
	INSTALL	/home/paolo/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp/nasty_app.png
Creating '/home/paolo/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp/application.fam'
Mkdir("/home/paolo/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp/images")
Touch("/home/paolo/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp/images/.gitkeep")
Copy("/home/paolo/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp/.github", "project_template/app_template/.github")

it generates all required files.

paolo@phobos ~/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp $ ls
application.fam  images  nasty_app.c  nasty_app.png

Running ufbt agin will build it

paolo@phobos ~/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp  flipper $ ufbt
scons: Entering directory `/home/paolo/.ufbt/current/scripts/ufbt'
	ICONS	/home/paolo/.ufbt/build/nasty_app/nasty_app_icons.c
	CDB	/home/paolo/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp/.vscode/compile_commands.json
	CC	/home/paolo/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp/nasty_app.c
	CC	/home/paolo/.ufbt/build/nasty_app/nasty_app_icons.c
	LINK	/home/paolo/.ufbt/build/nasty_app_d.elf
	APPMETA	/home/paolo/.ufbt/build/nasty_app.fap
	INSTALL	/home/paolo/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp/dist/debug/nasty_app_d.elf
	FAP	/home/paolo/.ufbt/build/nasty_app.fap
	FASTFAP	/home/paolo/.ufbt/build/nasty_app.fap
	INSTALL	/home/paolo/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp/dist/nasty_app.fap
	APPCHK	/home/paolo/.ufbt/build/nasty_app.fap
		Target: 7, API: 46.0

and it will generate a new set of files

paolo@phobos ~/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp $ ls
application.fam  dist  images  nasty_app.c  nasty_app.png
paolo@phobos ~/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp $ tree dist
dist
├── debug
│   └── nasty_app_d.elf
└── nasty_app.fap

1 directory, 2 files

nasty_app.fap is the flipper binary:

paolo@phobos ~/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp  flipper $ file dist/nasty_app.fap
dist/nasty_app.fap: ELF 32-bit LSB relocatable, ARM, EABI5 version 1 (SYSV), not stripped

You can upload and start the app on a Flipper attached over USB using ufbt launch OR just copy the fap using qFlipper.

To update the current version of the firmware(on my case, I had 0.95.1 and I need to update to 0.96.1) just do:

paolo@phobos ~/Workspace/Flipper/nastyapp  flipper $ ufbt update
48:55.669 [I] Deploying SDK for f7
48:55.669 [I] Fetching version info for UpdateChannel.RELEASE from https://update.flipperzero.one/firmware/directory.json
48:56.168 [I] Using version: 0.96.1
48:56.169 [I] uFBT SDK dir: /home/paolo/.ufbt/current
48:56.501 [I] Deploying SDK
48:56.778 [I] SDK deployed.

too simple