Developing and submitting an Embedded App | Developers

Developing and submitting an Embedded App

Find the necessary instructions to develop and submit an app for Ledger devices

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Sections in this page
  • Development phases
  • Things to know
  • Things to do
  • Contribute

    • User profile

    If you are new to developing Ledger embedded apps

    Please read this section entirely.

    If you already understand BOLOS and Personal Security Devices (PSDs)

    You can skip the first paragraph and go to Things to do.

    Development phases

    Development phases

    Things to know

    The BOLOS platform (Learn - Bolos)

    BOLOS is the operating system behind all Ledger personal security devices. It provides a lightweight, open-source framework for developers to build source code portable applications that run in a secure environment.

    Learn about the BOLOS platform

    Personal Security Devices (Learn - PSDs)

    Ledger Personal Security Devices allows users to store cryptographic secrets and sign transactions securely and conveniently. It is important to understand how they work before coding an embedded application.

    Learn about the personal security devices

    Things to do

    Get in touch with the Ledger developer community

    Joining Discord is not required to code your embedded application, but it will be easier to meet with our team and discuss the specifics of your project. Join us on the Ledger’s Discord server and introduce your project in the #nano-app channel.

    Process & Requirements

    Make sure you understand the Process and follow the Requirements starting here. The Guidelines will also help you on certain technical topics.

    Set up the BOLOS development environment

    In order to build or compile BOLOS applications for Ledger devices, the appropriate environment must be set up. This environment consists in an SDK and two compilers. The environment is all set in a Docker image.

    Code

    Embedded applications are coded in C on the Blockchain Open Ledger Operating System (BOLOS).

    To develop an embedded application you will need to:

    • Have Linux (or a VM running Linux)
    • Set up the BOLOS environment (consisting of the Nano S, X or S Plus SDK, and two compilers)
    • Either get a physical device or use the Speculos emulator

    Other languages are possible (no details here).

    Contribute

    If you want to improve the documentation you can use the comment box at the bottom of each page, or open a pull request on our repository

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