Build from source

Requirements

• Rust 1.75+ (rustup.rs)
• C compiler (gcc or clang)
• ~5 GB free disk space (V8 compiles from source on first build)

First build takes about 5 minutes. Incremental builds are seconds.

Build

git clone https://github.com/h4ckf0r0day/obscura.git
cd obscura
cargo build --release -p obscura-cli --bins --features render

Binary is at ./target/release/obscura.

This produces the release binary with geometry, screenshots, screencasting, and PDF export.

Rendering and stealth

cargo build --release -p obscura-cli --bins --features render,stealth

This is the complete rendering build with the stealth wreq/BoringSSL transport, TLS fingerprint randomization, browser-identity protections, and tracker blocklist. See Configure stealth and proxies.

Without rendering

cargo build --release -p obscura-cli --bins --no-default-features
cargo build --release -p obscura-cli --bins --no-default-features --features stealth

The second command keeps stealth while excluding layout, screenshots, screencasting, and PDF export.

The stealth feature builds BoringSSL and generates Rust bindings. In addition to the default requirements, install CMake, Clang, and the libclang/LLVM development libraries. On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake clang libclang-dev llvm-dev

On macOS, install the Xcode Command Line Tools and CMake. On Windows, install the Visual Studio C++ Build Tools, CMake, and LLVM/Clang. Ensure the directory containing libclang is available through LIBCLANG_PATH if bindgen cannot locate it automatically.

On macOS 26 with the standalone Command Line Tools, Apple Clang may not find libc++ while compiling BoringSSL. Use the active SDK for that build:

SDK_PATH="$(xcrun --show-sdk-path)"
SDKROOT="$SDK_PATH" CXXFLAGS="-isystem $SDK_PATH/usr/include/c++/v1" \
  cargo build --release -p obscura-cli --bins --features render,stealth

OpenSSL on older systems

If the build fails on the vendored OpenSSL with an AVX-512 assembler error (common on older VPS hosts):

OPENSSL_NO_VENDOR=1 cargo build --release -p obscura-cli --bins --features render

Uses the system OpenSSL instead.

Run from the build

./target/release/obscura --version
./target/release/obscura fetch https://example.com --eval "document.title"

Install system-wide:

cargo install --path crates/obscura-cli --features render

Tests

cargo nextest run --release --features render --no-fail-fast

Integration suite:

python3 tests/test_all.py

Use cargo nextest, not cargo test: runtime tests require process isolation because the engine owns a single V8 isolate per process.