Aestra

A digital audio workstation under active development, built in modern C++ with a custom UI stack and a native audio engine.

Current Snapshot

As of March 2026, the repo is in active engineering mode rather than release-polish mode. The most reliable currently verified paths are:

• Internal built-in plugin discovery through the normal manager/factory path
• Aestra Rumble instantiation, state save/restore, and project round-trips
• Arsenal units holding real plugin instances rather than placeholders
• Headless Arsenal playback routing MIDI into Rumble and producing audible output
• Project and plugin persistence coverage in the confidence suite

For the most truthful current status, start with:

• docs/technical/roadmap.md
• docs/technical/testing_ci.md
• meta/CHANGELOGS/CHANGELOG_2026Q1.md

Repository Layout

• AestraCore - core utilities and shared infrastructure
• AestraPlat - platform abstraction
• AestraAudio - audio engine, models, playback, DSP, and plugin plumbing
• AestraUI - custom rendering/UI framework
• Source - main application sources
• Tests - confidence suite and regression coverage
• docs - contributor and technical documentation

Build

Windows

git clone https://github.com/currentsuspect/Aestra.git
cd Aestra
pwsh -File scripts/install-hooks.ps1
cmake -S . -B build -DAestra_CORE_MODE=ON -DAESTRA_ENABLE_TESTS=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --config Release --parallel

Primary runtime targets are emitted under build/bin or generator-specific build/bin/<Config>.

Linux

git clone https://github.com/currentsuspect/Aestra.git
cd Aestra
cmake -S . -B build -DAestra_CORE_MODE=ON -DAESTRA_ENABLE_TESTS=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --parallel

Aestra_CORE_MODE defaults to ON in the public repo when premium modules are absent. Keeping it explicit in commands makes intent clear for contributors and CI.

More detail:

• docs/getting-started/building.md
• BUILD.md

Important CMake Options

Option	Meaning	Default
Aestra_CORE_MODE	Build without premium/private modules and use public assets	ON in public-only checkouts
AESTRA_ENABLE_UI	Build the desktop UI application	ON
AESTRA_HEADLESS_ONLY	Disable UI targets and configure headless-only builds	OFF
AESTRA_ENABLE_TESTS	Build test executables under Tests/	ON

Testing

After building, run the confidence suite with:

ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

There is also a helper script:

./scripts/run-confidence-suite.sh

The exact tests and CI posture are documented in docs/technical/testing_ci.md.

Documentation

• Docs home: docs/README.md
• Published docs: https://currentsuspect.github.io/Aestra/
• Contributor guide: docs/developer/contributing.md
• Build guide: docs/getting-started/building.md

Contributing

Start here:

• CONTRIBUTING.md
• docs/developer/contributing.md

When you touch behavior, update the relevant docs and add a brief item to the Unreleased section in CHANGELOG.md.

License

Aestra is source-available under the Aestra Studios Source-Available License (ASSAL) v1.1.

• Full text: LICENSE
• Practical guidance: LICENSING.md

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