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NEAT eLxr SDK

Use the NEAT eLxr SDK if you want a fast, agent-ready environment for building NEAT applications.

The NEAT eLxr SDK is built on top of the open source SiMa eLxr SDK, with workflow-focused additions:

  • Supports both x86 and arm64 container images, including native use on Mac without Rosetta overhead.
  • Supports the DevKit Sync feature so humans and coding agents can cross-compile and run DevKit binaries from the SDK shell without switching context.
  • Ships with preinstalled Codex and Claude skills and preinstalled latest main branch source references for core and apps.

This setup makes it possible to run end-to-end agentic workflows from a single prompt, including build-and-run loops against a paired DevKit.

The NEAT eLxr SDK source code is available on GitHub at sima-neat/elxr-sdk.

Supported platforms​

  • Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04 (through Docker Engine)
  • macOS 15.5 or above (through Colima)
  • Windows 11 (through WSL and Docker Engine)

Prerequisites​

  • Your host machine and DevKit must be on the same network and must allow NFS setup.
  • You should know your DevKit IP address.

Install and Setup​

  1. Install the NEAT eLxr SDK:
sima-cli install ghcr:sima-neat/elxr
Host setup notes

Host-specific setup details are documented in Reference:

  1. Set up the SDK and pair it with your DevKit:
sima-cli sdk setup --devkit {devkit-ip}

During setup:

  • Select container ghcr.io-sima-neat-elxr-latest if multiple SDK containers are present.
  • Enter host admin password when prompted (NFS server setup on host).
  • Enter DevKit sima password (edgeai) when prompted (NFS client setup on DevKit).

When setup succeeds, you should see output similar to:

============================================================
  DevKit Connected
============================================================
  DevKit target : [email protected]:22
  Mounted path  : /workspace
  Host export   : 192.168.74.48:/Users/joey/workspace

  You can now run DevKit binaries from this SDK shell:
    dk /workspace/<path-to-arm64-binary> [args...]
============================================================

__SIMA_DEVKIT_BOOTSTRAP_STATUS=sourced_no_dk
✅ DevKit bootstrap completed in container 'ghcr.io-sima-neat-elxr-latest' (interactive).

✅ All selected containers started successfully!

File sharing model (Host, Container, DevKit)​

The SDK setup workflow connects three environments:

  1. Host
  2. Container
  3. DevKit

sima-cli sdk setup configures NFS so your host workspace is shared across all three:

  • Host local workspace folder is exported through host NFS.
  • That folder is mounted into the SDK container as /workspace.
  • The same shared content appears on DevKit as /workspace through NFS.
  • Mounted folder names such as /workspace is default and can be changed during the SDK setup process.

Host-Container-DevKit workspace mapping

The diagram above shows how the same workspace is exposed across the host, SDK container, and DevKit through NFS-backed volume mapping.

This setup provides a seamless workflow for build artifacts:

  • artifacts produced in the SDK are immediately visible on the DevKit without an explicit deploy step
  • agents can access interim files (logs, outputs, traces) generated while the app runs on DevKit
  • humans and agents can inspect the same files from one workspace context

dk helper (devkit-run)​

The SDK includes the dk helper (also known as devkit-run) to run ARM64 executables from within the SDK shell.

When you invoke dk, the SDK offloads execution to the paired DevKit and handles path translation and normalization so file and path arguments passed from the SDK side resolve correctly on the DevKit side.

dk usage pattern:

dk <file> [args...]

Examples:

# Run an ARM64 executable built in the SDK workspace
dk build/sima_neat_hello

# Run a Python entry point on the paired DevKit
dk hello_neat.py

For Python scripts, dk runs the script on the paired DevKit and uses the DevKit PyNeat runtime environment. The SDK container remains useful as a unified workspace/orchestration environment, but Python-only workflows do not require the C++ cross-compilation toolchain.

note
Where dk Comes From

dk (alias for devkit-run) is a shell function defined in ~/devkit-sync.rc inside the SDK container. The SDK shell loads this through ~/.bashrc, so it is available in interactive SDK sessions.

VS Code workflow​

  1. Connect VS Code to ghcr.io-sima-neat-elxr-latest with Dev Containers. Install Dev Containers extension if needed.
  2. In the container terminal, run the following command once so the SDK can retrieve assets such as prebuilt models:
sima-cli login
  1. Install the Codex Extension or Claude Code extension in VS Code and sign in.
  2. Ask Codex or Claude what skills are available; when NEAT appears, environment setup is ready.

You can then use a prompt such as:

Build a C++ app doing image classification with RESNET50 using SiMa NEAT framework, run it on the devkit until you get the result.

SDK upgrade​

To upgrade NEAT eLxr SDK to the latest version, rerun:

sima-cli install ghcr:sima-neat/elxr

Next step​

To install or update the framework/runtime itself (the same flow for DevKit and SDK), continue to NEAT Framework.