• Build System Importance: A "build system" is crucial for developers. It creates runnable programs from source files by using the compiler, setting up test suites, etc. and should be fast and flexible.
• Jenga Development: Around 2012, dissatisfied with OMake, the developers built Jenga. It worked well for them but didn't work on Windows and required adopting the "Jane Street way." Eventually, they un-open sourced it.
• Jbuilder Creation: In 2016, they made Jbuilder, a simple cross-platform tool. It understood Jenga's build configuration and executed commands topologically. It wasn't a traditional build system.
• Jbuilder Becomes Dune: People loved Jbuilder and started using it for their own projects. It was fast and portable. They worked with OCaml Labs to make it a real build system and chose "Dune" as the new name.
• Jenga vs. Dune: Dune proved to be a better system with wider adoption, a better API, and user experience. They planned to migrate Jane Street onto Dune but didn't fully embark.
• Dune Subsumes Jenga: Making Dune scale to their huge codebase was a big task. They also had to migrate custom integrations from different editors. After over a year, the codebase is now built by Dune with improved performance.
• Future of Dune: Dune is a good foundation for new things. The team has grown to 12 engineers and is working on it 24 hours a day. It's been a long path but the end result is good for OCaml's build-system story.
• Andrey's Journey: Andrey joined Jane Street London in 2019 and moved to Singapore in 2025 to grow the Tools and Compilers team. Before Jane Street, he was an academic at Newcastle University.