Installation

Cobre is a statically linked binary available for the platforms listed below. Choose the method that best fits your environment.

Pre-built Binaries (Recommended)

No Rust toolchain or C compiler required.

Linux and macOS

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/cobre-rs/cobre/releases/latest/download/cobre-cli-installer.sh | sh

The installer places the cobre binary in $CARGO_HOME/bin (typically ~/.cargo/bin). Add that directory to your PATH if it is not already present.

Windows (PowerShell)

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://github.com/cobre-rs/cobre/releases/latest/download/cobre-cli-installer.ps1 | iex"

Supported Platforms

You can also download individual archives directly from the GitHub Releases page.

Verify the Installation

cobre version

Expected output (exact versions and arch will vary):

cobre   v0.9.1
solver: HiGHS
comm:   local
zstd:   enabled
arch:   x86_64-linux
build:  release (lto=thin)

From crates.io

cargo install cobre-cli

Requires Rust 1.88+ and build prerequisites (see Build from Source below). Installs to $CARGO_HOME/bin.

Build from Source

For contributors or unsupported platforms.

Prerequisites

Steps

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/cobre-rs/cobre.git
cd cobre

# Initialize HiGHS submodule (required for the solver backend)
git submodule update --init --recursive

# Build the release binary
cargo build --release -p cobre-cli

The binary is written to target/release/cobre. Optionally install to $CARGO_HOME/bin:

cargo install --path crates/cobre-cli

Verify:

./target/release/cobre version
cargo test --workspace

Choosing the LP Backend

Cobre supports two LP solver backends, selected at build time via Cargo features. Exactly one backend is compiled into any given binary.

Default build (HiGHS)

cargo build --release -p cobre-cli

No flags are needed. HiGHS is the default backend and the one shipped in pre-built binaries.

CLP build

# Initialize the CLP and CoinUtils submodules first
git submodule update --init --recursive

# Build with CLP, disabling the HiGHS default
cargo build --release -p cobre-cli --no-default-features --features clp

Mutual exclusivity

The highs and clp features are mutually exclusive — exactly one LP backend is compiled into a binary, and enabling both at once is a compile error. Because highs is the default feature, selecting CLP requires --no-default-features to suppress the default before --features clp is applied; a plain --features clp leaves the highs default on and fails the build. Enabling neither backend is also a compile error, so a backend is always chosen explicitly. The default build (no extra flags) uses HiGHS.

Identifying the active backend

The cobre version banner shows which backend is compiled in:

cobre   v0.9.1
solver: CLP 1.17.11
comm:   local
...

The solver and solver_version fields in each run’s output metadata record the active backend identifier ("highs" or "clp") and its library version string. These fields are written by both the CLI and the Python bindings.

Determinism

Each backend is internally deterministic: the same input, solved twice, produces bit-for-bit identical results; permuting the input entities produces the correspondingly permuted output. Switching from one backend to the other may legitimately change numerical results — the two simplex implementations can reach different optimal vertices on degenerate problems, all of which are valid. No cross-backend numerical equality is guaranteed; each backend maintains its own parity baselines.

Migration note

Existing builds are unaffected. The default backend is HiGHS, unchanged from prior releases. The CLP backend is strictly opt-in: users who do not pass --no-default-features --features clp continue to build and run against HiGHS exactly as before.

Known limitation

Re-loading a fresh model into a CLP solver instance after a hot-start snapshot has been taken is unsupported and guarded against at runtime. This situation does not arise on the production solve paths; it is relevant only to callers that construct solver instances directly and interleave load_model calls with hot-start operations.

Next Steps

• Quickstart — run a complete study end to end using the built-in 1dtoy template
• Running Studies — validate, run, and inspect results for any case directory
• CLI Reference — complete flag and subcommand reference