Install or Update Neat Library

Use this page to install or update the Palette Neat Library.

Neat Library within the Neat SDK

When you pair a DevKit during sima-cli sdk setup, the SDK installs its included Neat Library and bundled PyNeat environment at ~/pyneat on the DevKit automatically.

Choose Where to Install

Run the installer from the environment where you build or run Neat applications:

Environment	Use this when
Neat SDK	You want to upgrade the Neat Library in the Neat SDK without installing a new SDK version.
ROS2 SDK	You want to compile ROS 2 applications natively on ARM64 with Neat headers and libraries installed in the container's system paths.
DevKit	You want to install or update the runtime directly on the device.

Prerequisites

Install sima-cli in the environment where you plan to install the Neat Library. Use the sima-cli installation guide.

Create an account at community.sima.ai to access SiMa.ai assets such as precompiled models for testing.

Authenticate the environment so the installer can download SiMa.ai artifacts. See sima-cli login for details.

sdk-or-devkit$sima-cli login

Confirm the environment can reach the SiMa.ai artifacts host:

sdk-or-devkit$curl -fsS https://artifacts.neat.sima.ai/sima-cli/linux-mac.sh -o /dev/null && echo "artifacts reachable"

Printing artifacts reachable means the host is reachable. A curl error such as a timeout, connection refused, or "could not resolve host" means outbound access is blocked — check your host network, proxy, or firewall (see Neat SDK Networking and the host setup notes), or use Offline Installation if the machine cannot reach SiMa.ai services directly.

Install the Neat Library

Package compatibility

The installer uses every Debian package listed by the selected Core artifact and does not select different Internals or LLiMa versions. The installed platform must satisfy dependencies that are not delivered by that artifact. If APT would remove platform packages to complete the installation, the installer stops; update the platform instead of substituting packages in Core or LLiMa.

Choose a working directory before running the installer. On the DevKit, install under /media/nvme to avoid filling the root file system. In the SDK container, use a container-local path such as $HOME/neat.

Select your environment, then run the steps in order. Install in the Neat SDK container to cross-compile C++ applications. Install in the ROS2 SDK to compile natively on ARM64; its Debian packages are installed into /usr rather than the Neat cross-compilation sysroot. Install on the DevKit to set up the runtime there, which also provisions PyNeat at ~/pyneat. The installer command is the same in every environment.

Prepare a container-local install directory such as $HOME/neat:

username@neat-sdk-latest$cd $HOME && mkdir -p neat && cd neat

Install the default Neat Library package selected by sima-cli. You can optionally install extras, including prebuilt tutorials, source-code tutorials, and tests:

username@neat-sdk-latest$sima-cli neat install core@v0.4.0

Default PyNeat Environment

Installing the Neat Library on the DevKit also provisions a default PyNeat virtual environment at ~/pyneat on the DevKit. This is the supported PyNeat environment — activate it directly:

modalix$source ~/pyneat/bin/activate

If you run the installer from inside an SDK container paired with DevKit Sync, the installer provisions PyNeat on the paired DevKit, not only inside the SDK container. PyNeat is installed into a virtual environment under ~/pyneat on the DevKit.

For custom Python virtual environments, see Install PyNeat.

Source Builds

Build from source when you need an unreleased change, a custom build configuration, or you are contributing to the Neat Library. Most users should use the packaged install above instead.

If you prefer building from source, follow the Build guide.

For SDK setup and DevKit Sync onboarding, see Neat SDK.

Next Step

Continue to Install PyNeat for custom Python environments, or Neat CLI to inspect the installed environment.