Zephyr Toolchain SDKs for Workshop

This is a monorepository of Workshop SDKs that provide the Zephyr cross-compiler toolchains built from the zephyrproject-rtos/sdk-ng releases. Each subdirectory is a self-contained sdkcraft project that packages one toolchain (or the SDK NG bundle) for a specific target architecture.

Every toolchain here needs the companion zephyr-sdk-ng SDK, which brings the base directory tree structure for the toolchain installation directory

The base SDK is maintained separately in canonical/zephyr-sdk and is not part of this monorepo. Connect a toolchain from this repo to the base SDK to target a specific architecture.

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Repository layout

Each directory is an independent SDK with its own sdkcraft.yaml, README.md, tests/, and renovate.json is centralised at the repository root. All toolchains track the same upstream sdk-ng release, so they are versioned and released together (see Versioning and branches).

zephyr-sdk-ng is the SDK NG bundle (the minimal SDK NG distribution that exposes the per-architecture toolchain mount points). The remaining directories are the per-architecture toolchains:

SDK directory	Target triple
zephyr-sdk-ng	sdk-ng bundle (minimal)
zephyr-amd64-sdk	x86_64-zephyr-elf
zephyr-arc-sdk	arc-zephyr-elf
zephyr-arc64-sdk	arc64-zephyr-elf
zephyr-arm-sdk	arm-zephyr-eabi
zephyr-arm64-sdk	aarch64-zephyr-elf
zephyr-microblazeel-sdk	microblazeel-zephyr-elf
zephyr-mips-sdk	mips-zephyr-elf
zephyr-nios2-sdk	nios2-zephyr-elf
zephyr-riscv64-sdk	riscv64-zephyr-elf
zephyr-sparc-sdk	sparc-zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-amd-acp-6-0-adsp-sdk	xtensa-amd_acp_6_0_adsp_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-dc233c-sdk	xtensa-dc233c_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-espressif-esp32-sdk	xtensa-espressif_esp32_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-espressif-esp32s2-sdk	xtensa-espressif_esp32s2_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-espressif-esp32s3-sdk	xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-intel-ace15-mtpm-sdk	xtensa-intel_ace15_mtpm_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-intel-ace30-ptl-sdk	xtensa-intel_ace30_ptl_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-intel-tgl-adsp-sdk	xtensa-intel_tgl_adsp_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-mtk-mt8195-adsp-sdk	xtensa-mtk_mt8195_adsp_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-nxp-imx-adsp-sdk	xtensa-nxp_imx_adsp_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-nxp-imx8m-adsp-sdk	xtensa-nxp_imx8m_adsp_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-nxp-imx8ulp-adsp-sdk	xtensa-nxp_imx8ulp_adsp_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-nxp-rt500-adsp-sdk	xtensa-nxp_rt500_adsp_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-nxp-rt600-adsp-sdk	xtensa-nxp_rt600_adsp_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-nxp-rt700-hifi1-sdk	xtensa-nxp_rt700_hifi1_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-nxp-rt700-hifi4-sdk	xtensa-nxp_rt700_hifi4_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-sample-controller-sdk	xtensa-sample_controller_zephyr-elf
zephyr-xtensa-sample-controller32-sdk	xtensa-sample_controller32_zephyr-elf

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Versioning and branches

All SDKs in this repo track the same upstream sdk-ng release, so they share a single set of version branches:

• main — development branch. sdkcraft.yaml versions here are placeholders.
• 0.17.*, 1.0.*, … — one branch per released sdk-ng line (for example 0.16.9, 0.17.4, 1.0.1). The sdkcraft.yaml on these branches pin the exact sdk-ng version that every toolchain is built from.

Renovate opens a single, grouped pull request per version branch that bumps every SDK to the matching sdk-ng release (see below). Merging that PR into a version branch triggers a build-and-upload of every SDK.

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Continuous integration

The workflows in .github/workflows discover the SDK directories dynamically, so adding or removing a toolchain requires no workflow changes — the zephyr-sdk base SDK is the only directory excluded.

• build.yml — on a pull request against a version branch, discovers the SDK directories that changed and runs sdkcraft pack (plus sdkcraft test) for each of them as a build matrix. Shared changes (CI or renovate.json) rebuild every SDK.
• upload.yml — on a push to a version branch (or a manual workflow_dispatch), builds and uploads every SDK. It fans out over the directories and calls the shared canonical/sdkcraft-actions upload.yml reusable workflow with a per-directory subdirectory input, releasing each SDK to the <branch>/stable store track.
• renovate.yml / renovate-check.yml — run Renovate and validate the root renovate.json.

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Dependency updates (Renovate)

A single renovate.json at the repository root governs the whole monorepo. Its custom managers scan in every subdirectory the inline version: "…" field of each sdkcraft.yaml, resolving each against zephyrproject-rtos/sdk-ng GitHub releases. Updates are grouped into one pull request per version branch, and packageRules constrain each base branch to its release line (0.17.* → ^0.17., 1.0.* → ^1.0., 0.16.* → ^0.16.). The base zephyr-sdk directory is excluded via ignorePaths.

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Adding a new toolchain SDK

1. Create a new zephyr-<target>-sdk/ directory containing a sdkcraft.yaml (with an inline version: field), a README.md, and a tests/ directory.

2. Point the toolchain part at the matching sdk-ng release asset, for example:

   parts:
     toolchain:
       plugin: dump
       source: https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/sdk-ng/releases/download/v$CRAFT_PROJECT_VERSION/toolchain_linux-x86_64_<target>.tar.xz
       source-type: tar

3. That's it — CI and Renovate pick the directory up automatically on the next run. No workflow or renovate.json edits are required.

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Reference workshop

A minimal workshop that connects the base SDK, the SDK NG bundle, and the arm toolchain from this repo:

# workshop.yaml
name: zephyr-firmware
base: [email protected]
sdks:
  - name: uv
    channel: latest/stable
  - name: zephyr
    channel: 4.4/stable
  - name: zephyr-sdk-ng
    channel: 1.0.1/stable
  - name: zephyr-arm
    channel: 1.0.1/stable
connections:
  - plug: zephyr:sdk-ng
    slot: zephyr-sdk-ng:sdk-ng
  - plug: zephyr-sdk-ng:arm
    slot: zephyr-arm:toolchain
  - plug: zephyr:venv
    slot: uv:venv

See each SDK's own README.md for target-specific details and the base Zephyr SDK README for the full firmware build workflow.

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Documentation and guidance

• Zephyr official documentation
• Workshop documentation

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Community and support

• Zephyr community: Zephyr GitHub
• Zephyr community forum: Zephyr Discord
• Workshop forum: Discourse
• Please review our Code of Conduct before participating.

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Contributions

All contributions, including code, documentation updates, and issue reports, are welcome!

• See each SDK's CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
• Open issues or pull requests on the official repository.

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License and copyright

Copyright 2025 Canonical Ltd.

The Zephyr RTOS and the Zephyr SDK toolchains are licensed under the Apache License 2.0.