Installing the build environment

Download the msys2 installer and execute it
Using the console opened at the end of the installation, update the environment:

pacman -Syu
From now on, from the Start Menu, select MSYS2 CLANG64 to open a console using the clang64 environment
Finish the update

pacman -Su
Install the clang64 toolchain (choose to install all members)

pacman -S git make mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-toolchain mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-cmake mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-gcc-compat

Installing Monado Dependencies

pacman -S mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-vulkan-devel mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-glslang mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-eigen3 mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-hidapi mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-libusb mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-libjpeg-turbo mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-cjson mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-gstreamer mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-gst-plugins-base mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-SDL2

Building

cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF -DPython3_EXECUTABLE=/clang64/bin/python.exe
make -C build -j $(nproc)
make -C build install

Select the Monado runtime manifest

The manifest file is installed in C:\msys64\usr\openxr_monado.json. It can be made active by changing a Windows Registry Key (more information here), or more easily using xrpicker-gui.exe. It can also be set, temporarily, from within a shell before to run an OpenXR client:

in a Cmdtool, use: set XR_RUNTIME_JSON=C:\msys64\usr\openxr_monado.json,
in a PowerShell, use: $env:XR_RUNTIME_JSON = "C:\msys64\usr\openxr_monado.json"

Running from a non-msys64 environment

The built targets are installed in C:\msys64\usr\bin, the needed dlls are in C:\msys64\clang64\bin. To run a target from a non-msys64 environment, those paths have to be added to the Windows PATH environment variable.

to run a target by a double-click on its icon in the File Explorer, use the System Properties panel to permanently change the content of the user's or system's Path,
to run a target from a Cmdtool, the PATH can be set, temporally, using: set PATH=C:\msys64\usr\bin;C:\msys64\clang64\bin;PATH%
to run a target from a PowerShell, the PATH can be set, temporally, using: $env:PATH = "C:\msys64\usr\bin;C:\msys64\clang64\bin;" + $env:PATH

Limitation

Currently (2026-06-04), the OpenXR clients and monado-service must be run from the same environment (due to the way the IPC pipe is currently created):

if monado-service is run from a Windows console (Cmdtool or PowerShell) or from the File Manager, the OpenXR client must also be run from a Windows console or from the File Manager
if monado-service is run from a Mingw64 console, the OpenXR client must also be run from a Mingw64 console.

Gitlab Shell Worker configuration

To build Monado from a Gitlab Windows Shell Worker, some configurations are needed on the host (in addition to above installation instructions):

add C:\msys64\usr\bin to the Path system envvar
set MSYSTEM=CLANG64 in the system envvars (this must be set prior to the execution of the shell worker, hence the use of a system-wide envvar)
in the runner's config.toml, set:

[[runners]]

executor = "shell"

shell = "bash"

environment = ["ACLOCAL_PATH=/clang64/share/aclocal"]

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