---
title: "Building Plugin Dependencies"
description: "Learn how to build platform SDK dependencies locally for advanced customization."
url: https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/unreal/configuration/building-plugin-dependencies/
---

# Building Plugin Dependencies | Sentry for Unreal Engine

The Sentry Unreal plugin ships with pre-built binaries for all supported platforms. In most cases, you don't need to build anything yourself. However, building dependencies locally may be needed when:

* **Testing or debugging** unreleased changes to the underlying platform SDKs
* **Applying custom patches** to the platform SDKs for your project's specific needs

## [Prerequisites](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/unreal/configuration/building-plugin-dependencies.md#prerequisites)

* **[GitHub CLI](https://cli.github.com/)**
* **PowerShell** 7+ (or Windows PowerShell 5.1)
* **Git**
* **CMake** 3.16+
* **Platform toolchain**: Visual Studio 2019+ on Windows, Clang 13+ on Linux, Xcode on macOS
* **Android builds**: Java 17, Android SDK (API 33), Android NDK r25b
* **Crash Reporter builds**: [.NET 9.0 SDK](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/9.0)

## [Overview](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/unreal/configuration/building-plugin-dependencies.md#overview)

The plugin depends on platform-specific SDKs and other tools that are pre-built in CI and bundled into the `Source/ThirdParty/` directory:

* **[sentry-native](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-native)** — Windows and Linux
* **[sentry-cocoa](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-cocoa)** — macOS and iOS
* **[sentry-java](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-java)** — Android
* **[sentry-desktop-crash-reporter](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-desktop-crash-reporter)** — External crash reporter application for desktop platforms

The [sentry-unreal](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-unreal) repository includes a `build-deps.ps1` script that automates building these SDKs and copying the resulting binaries to the correct locations within the plugin. The `plugin-dev/` directory then serves as the complete plugin package that can be copied into any Unreal project.

## [Setup](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/unreal/configuration/building-plugin-dependencies.md#setup)

Clone the [sentry-unreal](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-unreal) repository, check out the tag that matches your installed plugin version, and run the initialization script:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-unreal.git
cd sentry-unreal
git checkout 1.XX.0  # match your installed plugin version
```

You also need a local clone of the SDK you want to build (see links in [Overview](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/unreal/configuration/building-plugin-dependencies.md#overview)). Each SDK version is pinned as a Git submodule under `modules/` in the sentry-unreal repository — check out the same commit or tag in your local clone. You can find the expected version by looking at the submodule reference for your plugin's release tag on [GitHub](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-unreal).

## [Using the Build Script](https://docs.sentry.io/platforms/unreal/configuration/building-plugin-dependencies.md#using-the-build-script)

Use `scripts/build-deps.ps1` to rebuild specific SDKs:

```powershell
# Point the script to your local SDK clone via environment variable or parameter
$env:SENTRY_NATIVE_PATH = "D:\projects\sentry-native"

# Build sentry-native (both Crashpad and Native backends)
./scripts/build-deps.ps1 -Native

# Or pass the path directly
./scripts/build-deps.ps1 -Native -NativePath "D:\projects\sentry-native"
```

The script builds the SDK and copies the output binaries into `plugin-dev/Source/ThirdParty/`, replacing the pre-built ones. After that, copy the contents of `plugin-dev/` to your project's `Plugins/sentry-unreal/` directory — this replaces the plugin with your custom-built version.

Available flags:

| Flag             | SDK                                    | Platform              |
| ---------------- | -------------------------------------- | --------------------- |
| `-Native`        | sentry-native                          | Windows               |
| `-Cocoa`         | sentry-cocoa                           | macOS                 |
| `-Java`          | sentry-java                            | Any                   |
| `-CrashReporter` | sentry-desktop-crash-reporter          | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| `-All`           | All SDKs available on current platform | —                     |

Each flag has a corresponding path parameter (e.g., `-NativePath`, `-CocoaPath`) that overrides the environment variable.

**Windows**: `-All` builds Native + Java + CrashReporter. **macOS**: `-All` builds Cocoa + Java + CrashReporter.

The script uses a fixed set of build settings that match the plugin's CI builds. If you need to customize the build (for example, passing additional CMake flags to sentry-native), you can modify the corresponding build function in `scripts/build-deps.ps1` before running it.