February 6, 2026
Great kit, tiny door
Show HN: ARM64 Android Dev Kit
Cool new Android dev kit… but only if your machine speaks ARM
TLDR: A new Android dev kit targets Linux ARM64 only and runs lots of background services while the app stays simple. The thread’s mood swings between “cool ARM‑first tool” and “who is this for?”, with calls for a plain‑English explainer and jokes about running microservices on a laptop.
Hacker News got a curveball: an Android dev kit that runs only on Linux ARM64 and splits everything into background services, while a simple app window sits on top. It’s Rust under the hood, with an event “bus” that streams job progress, and a catalog that pulls Android tools on demand. The dev even says x86 (Intel/AMD) is out because Android Studio already covers that crowd — cue raised eyebrows.
The opening vibe? Confusion. One early commenter pleaded for plain English, asking what this even does and who it’s for. That set the tone: folks want a one-liner, not a diagram. Then the nitpicks flew. No macOS support, Windows ARM only for some tools, and a whole bingo card of local ports (127.0.0.1:50051–50057). Some laughed about running “microservices on my laptop,” calling it DevOps cosplay; others defended the design as clean separation with real-time logs and dashboards — catnip for build nerds.
Fans say it’s a brave, ARM‑first alternative for people building Android on ARM machines without relying on heavy tools. Skeptics say it’s niche on purpose and over‑engineered. Everyone agrees on one thing: give us a plain‑English demo and show the magic. Until then, it’s a bold kit with a very tight door link.
Key Points
- •AADK introduces a GUI-first, multi-service gRPC scaffold for an Android DevKit-style workflow, with logic in backend services.
- •Only Linux ARM64 hosts are supported for running the full stack (services, UI, Cuttlefish); x86_64 is out of scope.
- •Toolchain catalogs provide Linux ARM64 SDK/NDK and Windows ARM64 NDK artifacts (r29/r28c/r27d), with no Darwin catalogs.
- •Architecture includes JobService (event bus), and Toolchain/Build/Targets/Observe/Project/Workflow services; UI/CLI are thin clients.
- •Default service addresses, data/state paths, and on-demand third-party toolchain downloads are specified, with catalog override via AADK_TOOLCHAIN_CATALOG.