Package index json specification
Introduced in Arduino IDE 1.6.4, Boards Manager makes it easy to install and update Arduino platforms. In order to provide Boards Manager installation support for a platform, a JSON formatted index file must be published. This is the specification for that file.
Boards Manager functionality is provided by Arduino CLI and Arduino IDE.
Naming of the JSON index file
Many different index files coming from different vendors may be in use, so each vendor should name their own index file in a way that won't conflict with others. The file must be named as follows:
package_YOURNAME_PACKAGENAME_index.json
The prefix
package_
and the postfix _index.json
are mandatory (otherwise the index file is not recognised by the
Arduino development software) while the choice of YOURNAME_PACKAGENAME
is left to the packager. We suggest using a
domain name owned by the packager. For example:package_arduino.cc_index.json
or
package_example.com_avr_boards_index.json
The index URL is periodically checked for updates, so expect a constant flow of downloads (proportional to the number of active users).
JSON Index file contents
The root of the JSON index is an array of
packages
:1{2 "packages": [PACKAGE_XXXX]3}
3rd party vendors should use a single
PACKAGE_XXXX
that is a dictionary map with the vendor's metadata, a list of
PLATFORMS
and a list of TOOLS
. For example:1{2 "name": "arduino",3 "maintainer": "Arduino LLC",4 "websiteURL": "http://www.arduino.cc/",5 "email": "packages@arduino.cc",6
7 "platforms": [PLATFORM_AVR, PLATFORM_ARM, PLATFORM_XXXXX, PLATFORM_YYYYY],8
9 "tools": [10 TOOLS_COMPILER_AVR,11 TOOLS_UPLOADER_AVR,12 TOOLS_COMPILER_ARM,13 TOOLS_XXXXXXX,14 TOOLS_YYYYYYY15 ]16 }
The metadata fields are:
: the folder used for the installed cores. The vendor folder name of the installed package is determined by this fieldname
: the extended name of the vendor that is displayed on the Arduino IDE Boards Manager GUImaintainer
: the URL to the vendor's website, appears on the Arduino IDE Boards Manager as a "More info" linkwebsiteURL
: the email of the vendor/maintaineremail
Now, before looking at
PLATFORMS
, let's explore first how TOOLS
are made.Tools definitions
Each tool describes a binary distribution of a command line tool. A tool can be:
- a compiler toolchain
- an uploader
- a file preprocessor
- a debugger
- a program that performs a firmware upgrade
- a pluggable discovery
- a pluggable monitor
basically anything that can run on the user's host PC and do something useful.
For example, Arduino uses two command line tools for the AVR boards: avr-gcc (the compiler) and avrdude (the uploader).
Tools are mapped as JSON in this way:
1{2 "name": "avr-gcc",3 "version": "7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7",4 "systems": [5 {6 "size": "34683056",7 "checksum": "SHA-256:3903553d035da59e33cff9941b857c3cb379cb0638105dfdf69c97f0acc8e7b5",8 "host": "arm-linux-gnueabihf",9 "archiveFileName": "avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.bz2",10 "url": "http://downloads.arduino.cc/tools/avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.bz2"11 },12 {13 "size": "38045723",14 "checksum": "SHA-256:03d322b9df6da17289e9e7c6233c34a8535d9c645c19efc772ba19e56914f339",15 "host": "aarch64-linux-gnu",16 "archiveFileName": "avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-aarch64-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2",17 "url": "http://downloads.arduino.cc/tools/avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-aarch64-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2"18 },19 {20 "size": "36684546",21 "checksum": "SHA-256:f6ed2346953fcf88df223469088633eb86de997fa27ece117fd1ef170d69c1f8",22 "host": "x86_64-apple-darwin14",23 "archiveFileName": "avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-x86_64-apple-darwin14.tar.bz2",24 "url": "http://downloads.arduino.cc/tools/avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-x86_64-apple-darwin14.tar.bz2"25 },26 {27 "size": "52519412",28 "checksum": "SHA-256:a54f64755fff4cb792a1495e5defdd789902a2a3503982e81b898299cf39800e",29 "host": "i686-mingw32",30 "archiveFileName": "avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-i686-w64-mingw32.zip",31 "url": "http://downloads.arduino.cc/tools/avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-i686-w64-mingw32.zip"32 },33 {34 "size": "37176991",35 "checksum": "SHA-256:954bbffb33545bcdcd473af993da2980bf32e8461ff55a18e0eebc7b2ef69a4c",36 "host": "i686-linux-gnu",37 "archiveFileName": "avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2",38 "url": "http://downloads.arduino.cc/tools/avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2"39 },40 {41 "size": "37630618",42 "checksum": "SHA-256:bd8c37f6952a2130ac9ee32c53f6a660feb79bee8353c8e289eb60fdcefed91e",43 "host": "x86_64-linux-gnu",44 "archiveFileName": "avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2",45 "url": "http://downloads.arduino.cc/tools/avr-gcc-7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2"46 }47 ]48 },
The field
name
and version
are respectively the name and version of the tool. Each tool is uniquely identified by
the triple (packager
, name
, version
). packager
(AKA "vendor") is defined by the name
value of the tool's
package. There can be many different versions of the same tool available at the same time, for example:- (
,arduino
,avr-gcc
)5.4.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino2
- (
,arduino
,avr-gcc
)7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino5
- (
,arduino
,avr-gcc
)7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7
- (
,arduino
,avrdude
)5.11
- (
,arduino
,avrdude
)6.0
- (
,arduino
,avrdude
)6.1
- .....
The
systems
field lists all available Tools Flavours.The other fields are:
: the download URL of the tool's archiveurl
: the name of the file saved to disk after the download (some web servers don't provide the filename through the HTTP request)archiveFileName
: the size of the archive in bytessize
: the checksum of the archive, used to check if the file has been corrupted. The format ischecksum
, currentlyALGORITHM:CHECKSUM
,MD5
,SHA-1
algorithm are supported, we recommendSHA-256
. On *nix or macOS you can use the commandSHA-256
to generate SHA-256 checksums. There are free options for Windows, including md5deep. There are also online utilities for generating checksums.shasum -a 256 filename
Tools flavours (available builds made for different OS)
Each tool version may come in different build flavours for different OS. Each flavour is listed under the
systems
array. The IDE will take care to install the right flavour for the user's OS by matching the host
value with the
following table or fail if a needed flavour is missing.OS flavour | regexp | suggested value |
---|---|---|
Linux 32 |
|
|
Linux 64 |
|
|
Linux Arm |
|
|
Linux Arm64 |
|
|
Linux RISC-V 64 |
|
|
Windows 32 |
| or
|
Windows 64 |
| or
|
MacOSX 32 |
|
|
MacOSX 64 |
|
|
MacOSX Arm64 |
|
|
FreeBSD 32 |
|
|
FreeBSD 64 |
|
|
FreeBSD Arm |
|
|
The
host
value is matched with the regexp, this means that a more specific value for the host
field is allowed (for
example you may write x86_64-apple-darwin14.1
for MacOSX instead of the suggested x86_64-apple-darwin
), by the way,
we recommend to keep it simple and stick to the suggested value in the table.Some OS allows to run different flavours:
The OS... | ...may also run builds for |
---|---|
Windows 64 | Windows 32 |
MacOSX 64 | MacOSX 32 |
MacOSX Arm64 | MacOSX 64 or MacOSX 32 |
This is taken into account when the tools are downloaded (for example if we are on a Windows 64 machine and the needed tool is available only for the Windows 32 flavour, then the Windows 32 flavour will be downloaded and used).
For completeness, the previous example
avr-gcc
comes with builds for:- ARM Linux 32 (
),arm-linux-gnueabihf
- ARM Linux 64 (
),aarch64-linux-gnu
- MacOSX 64 (
),x86_64-apple-darwin14
- Windows 32 (
),i686-mingw32
- Linux 32 (
),i686-linux-gnu
- Linux 64 (
)x86_64-linux-gnu
- MacOSX Arm64 will use the MacOSX 64 flavour
- Windows 64 will use the Windows 32 flavour
Note: this information is not used to select the toolchain during compilation. If you want a specific version to be used, you should use the notation
{runtime.tools.TOOLNAME-VERSION.path}
in the platform.txt.Platforms definitions
Finally, let's see how
PLATFORMS
are made.1{2 "name": "Arduino AVR Boards",3 "architecture": "avr",4 "version": "1.6.6",5 "category": "Arduino",6 "help": {7 "online": "http://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/HomePage"8 },9 "url": "http://downloads.arduino.cc/cores/avr-1.6.6.tar.bz2",10 "archiveFileName": "avr-1.6.6.tar.bz2",11 "checksum": "SHA-256:08ad5db4978ebea22344edc5d77dce0923d8a644da7a14dc8072e883c76058d8",12 "size": "4876916",13 "boards": [14 {"name": "Arduino Yún"},15 {"name": "Arduino Uno"},16 {"name": "Arduino Diecimila"},17 {"name": "Arduino Nano"},18 {"name": "Arduino Mega"},19 {"name": "Arduino MegaADK"},20 {"name": "Arduino Leonardo"},21 ],22 "toolsDependencies": [23 { "packager": "arduino", "name": "avr-gcc", "version": "4.8.1-arduino5" },24 { "packager": "arduino", "name": "avrdude", "version": "6.0.1-arduino5" }25 ],26 "discoveryDependencies": [27 { "packager": "arduino", "name": "serial-discovery" },28 { "packager": "arduino", "name": "mdns-discovery" }29 ],30 "monitorDependencies": [31 { "packager": "arduino", "name": "serial-monitor" }32 ]33 },
Each PLATFORM describes a core for a specific architecture. The fields needed are:
: the extended name of the platform that is displayed on the Boards Manager GUIname
: is the architecture of the platform (avr, sam, etc...). It must match the architecture of the core as explained in the Arduino platform specificationarchitecture
: the version of the platform.version
: (optional) setting todeprecated
causes the platform to be moved to the bottom of all Boards Manager andtrue
listings and marked "DEPRECATED".arduino-cli core
: this field is reserved, a 3rd party core must set it tocategory
Contributed
/help
: is a URL that is displayed on the Arduino IDE's Boards Manager as an "Online Help" linkonline
,url
,archiveFileName
andsize
: metadata of the core archive file. The meaning is the same as for the TOOLSchecksum
: the list of boards supported (note: just the names to display on the Arduino IDE's Boards Manager GUI! the real boards definitions are insideboards
inside the core archive file)boards.txt
: the tools needed by this platform. They will be installed by Boards Manager along with the platform. Each tool is referenced by the triple (toolsDependencies
,packager
,name
) as previously said. Note that you can reference tools available in other packages as well, even if no platform of that package is installed.version
: the Pluggable Discoveries needed by this platform. These are tools, defined exactly like the ones referenced indiscoveryDependencies
. UnliketoolsDependencies
, discoveries are referenced by the pair (toolsDependencies
,packager
). Thename
is not specified because the latest installed discovery tool will always be used. Likeversion
they will be installed by Boards Manager along with the platform and can reference tools available in other packages as well, even if no platform of that package is installed.toolsDependencies
: the Pluggable Monitors needed by this platform. These are tools, defined exactly like the ones referenced inmonitorDependencies
. UnliketoolsDependencies
, monitors are referenced by the pair (toolsDependencies
,packager
). Thename
is not specified because the latest installed monitor tool will always be used. Likeversion
they will be installed by Boards Manager along with the platform and can reference tools available in other packages as well, even if no platform of that package is installed.toolsDependencies
The
version
field is validated by both Arduino IDE and JSemVer. Here are the
rules Arduino IDE follows for parsing versions
(source):- Split the version at the
character and continue with the first part.-
- If there are no dots (
), parse.
as an integer and form a Version from that integer usingversion
Version.forIntegers
- If there is one dot, split
into two, parse each part as an integer, and form a Version from those integers usingversion
Version.forIntegers
- Otherwise, simply parse
into a Version usingversion
Version.valueOf
Note: if you miss a bracket in the JSON index, then add the URL to your Preferences, and open Boards Manager it can cause the Arduino IDE to no longer load until you have deleted the file from your arduino15 folder.
How a tool's path is determined in platform.txt
When the IDE needs a tool, it downloads the corresponding archive file and unpacks the content into a private folder that can be referenced from
platform.txt
using one of the following properties:{runtime.tools.TOOLNAME-VERSION.path}
{runtime.tools.TOOLNAME.path}
For example, to obtain the avr-gcc 4.8.1 folder we can use
{runtime.tools.avr-gcc-4.8.1.path}
or
{runtime.tools.avr-gcc.path}
.In general the same tool may be provided by different packagers (for example the Arduino packager may provide an
arduino:avr-gcc
and another 3rd party packager may provide their own 3rdparty:avr-gcc
). The rules to disambiguate
are as follows:The property
points, in order of priority, to:{runtime.tools.TOOLNAME.path}
- the tool, version and packager specified via
in thetoolsDependencies
package_index.json
- the highest version of the tool provided by the packager of the current platform
- the highest version of the tool provided by the packager of the referenced platform used for compile (see "Referencing another core, variant or tool" for more info)
- the highest version of the tool provided by any other packager (in case of tie, the first packager in alphabetical order wins)
- the tool, version and packager specified via
The property
points, in order of priority, to:{runtime.tools.TOOLNAME-VERSION.path}
- the tool and version provided by the packager of the current platform
- the tool and version provided by the packager of the referenced platform used for compile (see "Referencing another core, variant or tool" for more info)
- the tool and version provided by any other packager (in case of tie, the first packager in alphabetical order wins)
Example JSON index file
1{2 "packages": [3 {4 "name": "myboard",5 "maintainer": "Jane Developer",6 "websiteURL": "https://github.com/janedeveloper/myboard",7 "email": "jane@janedeveloper.org",8 "help": {9 "online": "http://janedeveloper.org/forum/myboard"10 },11 "platforms": [12 {13 "name": "My Board",14 "architecture": "avr",15 "version": "1.0.0",16 "category": "Contributed",17 "help": {18 "online": "http://janedeveloper.org/forum/myboard"19 },20 "url": "https://janedeveloper.github.io/myboard/myboard-1.0.0.zip",21 "archiveFileName": "myboard-1.0.0.zip",22 "checksum": "SHA-256:ec3ff8a1dc96d3ba6f432b9b837a35fd4174a34b3d2927de1d51010e8b94f9f1",23 "size": "15005",24 "boards": [{ "name": "My Board" }, { "name": "My Board Pro" }],25 "toolsDependencies": [26 {27 "packager": "arduino",28 "name": "avr-gcc",29 "version": "4.8.1-arduino5"30 },31 {32 "packager": "arduino",33 "name": "avrdude",34 "version": "6.0.1-arduino5"35 }36 ]37 },38 {39 "name": "My Board",40 "architecture": "avr",41 "version": "1.0.1",42 "category": "Contributed",43 "help": {44 "online": "http://janedeveloper.org/forum/myboard"45 },46 "url": "https://janedeveloper.github.io/myboard/myboard-1.0.1.zip",47 "archiveFileName": "myboard-1.0.1.zip",48 "checksum": "SHA-256:9c86ee28a7ce9fe33e8b07ec643316131e0031b0d22e63bb398902a5fdadbca9",49 "size": "15125",50 "boards": [{ "name": "My Board" }, { "name": "My Board Pro" }],51 "toolsDependencies": [52 {53 "packager": "arduino",54 "name": "avr-gcc",55 "version": "4.8.1-arduino5"56 },57 {58 "packager": "arduino",59 "name": "avrdude",60 "version": "6.0.1-arduino5"61 }62 ]63 }64 ],65 "tools": []66 }67 ]68}
In the example there is one
PACKAGE
, My Board. The package is compatible with the AVR architecture. There are two
versions of the PACKAGE
, 1.0.0 and 1.0.1. No TOOLS
needed to be installed so that section was left empty.Here is the Boards Manager entry created by the example:
Archive structure
It must contain a single folder in the root. All files and
__MACOSX
folder present in the root will be ignored.Valid structure
1.2└── avr/3 ├── bootloaders4 ├── cores5 ├── firmwares6 ├── libraries7 ├── variants8 ├── boards.txt9 ├── platform.txt10 └── programmers.txt
Invalid structure:
1.2├── avr/3│ ├── ...4│ ├── boards.txt5│ ├── platform.txt6│ └── programmers.txt7├── folder28└── folder3
Note: the folder structure of the core archive is slightly different from the standard manually installed Arduino IDE 1.5+ compatible hardware folder structure. You must remove the architecture folder(e.g.,
avr
or arm
), moving all
the files and folders within the architecture folder up a level.Installation
The installation archives contain the Board support files.
Supported formats are
.zip
, .tar.bz2
, and .tar.gz
. Starting from Arduino CLI >=0.30.0 support for .tar.xz
, and
.tar.zst
has been added, by the way, if you want to keep compatibility with older versions of Arduino IDE and Arduino
CLI we recommend using one of the older formats.The folder structure of the core archive is slightly different from the standard manually installed Arduino IDE 1.5+ compatible hardware folder structure. You must remove the architecture folder(e.g.,
avr
or arm
), moving all the
files and folders within the architecture folder up a level.After adding Boards Manager support for your boards, please share the JSON index file URL on the Unofficial list of 3rd party boards support urls.
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