The include/ directory is a copy of the include directory from version 7.0.3 of the fmtlib distribution. The fmtlib can be found at https://github.com/fmtlib/fmt The fmtlib code embedded here should be compiled in header only mode, to ensure that the symbol FMT_HEADER_ONLY must be defined before the the fmt/format.h header is included: #define FMT_HEADER_ONLY #include .... auto msg = fmt::format("Hello {}", "world");