Introduction

A CLI-first STM32 developer platform: declarative stm32.toml → validated HAL init code → flashed firmware, plus a real-time ITM trace dashboard.

Nucleus replaces STM32CubeIDE/CubeMX's graphical pin configuration and proprietary debug tooling with a version-controllable, CI-friendly CLI and a thin VS Code extension.

Watch the demo video

At a glance

# stm32.toml
[device]
family   = "STM32F446RE"
board    = "NUCLEO-F446RE"
clock_hz = 180_000_000

[peripherals.usart2]
tx   = "PA2"
rx   = "PA3"
baud = 115200

nucleus check     # validate against the constraint database
nucleus build     # generate HAL init code + build firmware
nucleus trace     # decode ITM/SWO and stream to the dashboard

Nucleus supports two NUCLEO boards out of the box: NUCLEO-F446RE (STM32F446RE) and NUCLEO-F411RE (STM32F411RE) — pick one with nucleus init --board <name>.

What's in this book

• Installation — install the nucleus CLI and the VS Code extension.
• Quickstart: Blink an LED — from a clean machine to a blinking LED on a NUCLEO-F446RE.
• CLI Usage — check, init, build, flash, lsp, trace.
• Enabling ITM Trace — wire up SWO/ITM in firmware and OpenOCD for nucleus trace.
• CI Integration — gate PRs with nucleus check via the reusable action.