Installation

Prerequisites

Raven requires OCaml 5.2 or later and opam.

If you don't have opam installed, follow the official instructions. Then create a switch:

opam switch create raven 5.2.0
eval $(opam env)

Installing from opam

Install the entire ecosystem:

opam install raven

Or install individual libraries:

opam install nx          # just arrays
opam install rune        # arrays + autodiff
opam install kaun        # arrays + autodiff + neural networks
opam install brot        # tokenization
opam install talon       # dataframes

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/raven-ml/raven
cd raven
dune pkg lock && dune build

To build a specific library:

dune build packages/nx            # just nx
dune build packages/kaun          # kaun + its dependencies

System Dependencies

Most Raven libraries have no system dependencies beyond OCaml. The exceptions:

Using Raven in Your Project

Add libraries to your dune-project:

(lang dune 3.0)
(package
 (name my_project)
 (depends
  ocaml
  dune
  nx
  rune))

And your dune file:

(executable
 (name main)
 (libraries nx rune))

Verify Your Installation

Create a file main.ml:

let () =
  let open Nx in
  let x = linspace Float32 0. 1. 5 in
  print_data x

Build and run:

dune exec ./main.exe

You should see five evenly-spaced values printed.

Editor Setup

For the best development experience, use an editor with OCaml LSP support:

• VS Code: Install the OCaml Platform extension
• Emacs: Use ocaml-eglot
• Vim/Neovim: Use ocaml-lsp with your LSP client

Troubleshooting

Missing system libraries: If Hugin fails to build, ensure Cairo and SDL2 development headers are installed.

Opam switch issues: Run eval $(opam env) after creating or switching opam switches.

Build failures: Check your OCaml version with ocaml --version. Raven requires 5.2.0 or later.

Getting help: Report issues at github.com/raven-ml/raven/issues.