Ledger Bitcoin Application

June 24, 2026 · View on GitHub

This is the Bitcoin application for Ledger devices.

Quick start guide

With VSCode

You can quickly setup a convenient environment to build and test your application by using Ledger's VSCode developer tools extension which leverages the ledger-app-dev-tools docker image.

It will allow you, whether you are developing on macOS, Windows or Linux to quickly build your apps, test them on Speculos and load them on any supported device.

  • Install and run Docker.
  • Make sure you have an X11 server running :
    • On Ubuntu Linux, it should be running by default.
    • On macOS, install and launch XQuartz (make sure to go to XQuartz > Preferences > Security and check "Allow client connections").
    • On Windows, install and launch VcXsrv (make sure to configure it to disable access control).
  • Install VScode and add Ledger's extension.
  • Open a terminal and clone app-bitcoin-new with git clone git@github.com:LedgerHQ/app-bitcoin-new.git.
  • Open the app-bitcoin-new folder with VSCode.
  • Use Ledger extension's sidebar menu or open the tasks menu with ctrl + shift + b (command + shift + b on a Mac) to conveniently execute actions :
    • Build the app for the device model of your choice with Build.
    • Test your binary on Speculos with Run with Speculos.
    • You can also run functional tests, load the app on a physical device, and more.

:information_source: The terminal tab of VSCode will show you what commands the extension runs behind the scene.

With a terminal

The ledger-app-dev-tools docker image contains all the required tools and libraries to build, test and load an application.

You can download it from the ghcr.io docker repository:

sudo docker pull ghcr.io/ledgerhq/ledger-app-builder/ledger-app-dev-tools:latest

You can then enter this development environment by executing the following command from the directory of the application git repository:

Linux (Ubuntu)

sudo docker run --rm -ti --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" --privileged -v "/dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb" -v "$(realpath .):/app" ghcr.io/ledgerhq/ledger-app-builder/ledger-app-dev-tools:latest

macOS

sudo docker run  --rm -ti --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" --privileged -v "$(pwd -P):/app" ghcr.io/ledgerhq/ledger-app-builder/ledger-app-dev-tools:latest

Windows (with PowerShell)

docker run --rm -ti --privileged -v "$(Get-Location):/app" ghcr.io/ledgerhq/ledger-app-builder/ledger-app-dev-tools:latest

The application's code will be available from inside the docker container, you can proceed to the following compilation steps to build your app.

Compilation and load

To easily setup a development environment for compilation and loading on a physical device, you can use the VSCode integration whether you are on Linux, macOS or Windows.

If you prefer using a terminal to perform the steps manually, you can use the guide below.

Compilation

Setup a compilation environment by following the shell with docker approach.

From inside the container, use the following command to build the app :

make DEBUG=1  # compile optionally with PRINTF

You can choose which device to compile and load for by setting the BOLOS_SDK environment variable to the following values :

  • BOLOS_SDK=$NANOX_SDK
  • BOLOS_SDK=$NANOSP_SDK
  • BOLOS_SDK=$STAX_SDK
  • BOLOS_SDK=$FLEX_SDK
  • BOLOS_SDK=$APEX_P_SDK

By default this variable is set to build/load for Nano S+.

The app is compiled for testnet by default. In order to compile the app for mainnet, add COIN=bitcoin when running the make command.

Loading on a physical device

This step will vary slightly depending on your platform.

:information_source: Your physical device must be connected, unlocked and the screen showing the dashboard (not inside an application).

Linux (Ubuntu)

First make sure you have the proper udev rules added on your host :

# Run these commands on your host, from the app's source folder.
sudo cp .vscode/20-ledger.ledgerblue.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules 
sudo udevadm trigger

Then once you have opened a terminal in the app-builder image and built the app for the device you want, run the following command :

# Run this command from the app-builder container terminal.
make load    # load the app on a Nano S+ by default

Setting the BOLOS_SDK environment variable will allow you to load on whichever supported device you want.

macOS / Windows (with PowerShell)

:information_source: It is assumed you have Python installed on your computer.

Run these commands on your host from the app's source folder once you have built the app for the device you want :

# Install Python virtualenv
python3 -m pip install virtualenv 
# Create the 'ledger' virtualenv
python3 -m virtualenv ledger

Enter the Python virtual environment

  • macOS : source ledger/bin/activate
  • Windows : .\ledger\Scripts\Activate.ps1
# Install Ledgerblue (tool to load the app)
python3 -m pip install ledgerblue 
# Load the app.
python3 -m ledgerblue.runScript --scp --fileName bin/app.apdu --elfFile bin/app.elf

Documentation

If you want to understand what the app does or build an integration on top of an existing client library, start here:

  • features.md: Overview of the app's features and the account/script types it supports.
  • integration.md: Concepts and security model for integrators — wallet policies, registration, and on-device verification.

For many use cases, the code examples provided in the following client libraries are enough to get started:

If you need to go deeper into the rabbit hole 🐇🕳️ (for example to implement a client library or work at the protocol level), refer to the following documents:

  • bitcoin.md: Low-level documentation of the Bitcoin app's communication protocol and commands.
  • wallet.md: Formal definition of the wallet policy language, its serialization, and the supported scripts.
  • merkle.md: Advanced details on techniques used in the Bitcoin app's secured and scalable communication protocol.
  • musig.md: Details of the MuSig2 implementation and its on-device state management.
  • debugging.md: Guidance on how to diagnose and resolve issues.

Tests

See the tests folder for documentation on the functional and end-to-end test suites of the bitcoin app, and the unit-tests folder for the C unit tests.

Deployment

To have either the python client, javascript client or rust client published to their respective package registries upon a new release, please create a tag with their respective regex :

pyclient-\d+\.\d+\.\d+
jsclient-\d+\.\d+\.\d+
rsclient-\d+\.\d+\.\d+