> [!NOTE] > **Note:** To add prebuilt vision, text, audio, or generative AI capabilities to your app in a few lines of code, start with [MediaPipe Tasks](https://developers.google.com/edge/mediapipe/solutions). **MediaPipe Framework** is the low-level C++ and multi-platform graph engine underpinning [MediaPipe Tasks](https://developers.google.com/edge/mediapipe/solutions). Use MediaPipe Framework when you need to author custom C++ calculators, orchestrate multi-stream timestamped packet graphs, or build bespoke GPU/CPU perception pipelines.  ## Core concepts Familiarize yourself with the three building blocks of a MediaPipe pipeline before authoring custom graphs (see the [Framework concepts overview](https://developers.google.com/edge/mediapipe/framework_concepts/overview)): [Data Unit ### Packets Immutable, timestamped data payloads (frames, tensors, landmarks, or protos) flowing along streams.](https://developers.google.com/edge/mediapipe/framework_concepts/packets) [Topology ### Graphs Directed dataflow topologies connecting calculators and modular subgraphs using streams and side packets.](https://developers.google.com/edge/mediapipe/framework_concepts/graphs) [Compute Node ### Calculators Modular C++ execution units implementing `Open()`, `Process()`, and `Close()` lifecycle hooks.](https://developers.google.com/edge/mediapipe/framework_concepts/calculators) ## Get started Set up your build environment and compile example pipelines across desktop and mobile targets: [Setup ### Install MediaPipe Framework Configure Bazelisk, OpenCV, and platform toolchains on Linux, macOS, or Windows.](https://developers.google.com/edge/mediapipe/getting_started/install) [Examples ### Build example applications Compile and run MediaPipe Framework sample graphs for C++, Android, iOS, and Python.](https://developers.google.com/edge/mediapipe/getting_started/building_examples) The open-source implementation is hosted in the [MediaPipe GitHub repository](https://github.com/google-ai-edge/mediapipe), and you can browse symbols in [Google Open Source Code Search](https://cs.opensource.google/mediapipe/mediapipe).