Briefcase configuration options

Environment variables

BRIEFCASE_HOME

When briefcase runs, it will download the support files, tools, and SDKs necessary to support building and packaging apps. By default, it will store the files in a platform-native cache folder:

  • macOS: ~/Library/Caches/org.beeware.briefcase

  • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\BeeWare\briefcase\Cache

  • Linux: ~/.cache/briefcase

If you want to use a different folder to store the Briefcase resources, you can define a BRIEFCASE_HOME environment variable.

There are three restrictions on this path specification:

  1. The path must already exist. If it doesn’t exist, you should create it manually.

  2. It must not contain any spaces.

  3. It must not be on a network drive.

The second two restrictions both exist because some of the tools that Briefcase uses (in particular, the Android SDK) do not work in these locations.