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Installing developer tools

Beginner
Getting started
Tutorial

The IC SDK is a software development kit used to develop and deploy applications on the Internet Computer (ICP) from a local developer environment. It is comprised of several tools.

Installing the IC SDK​

The IC SDK is natively supported on Linux or macOS 12.* Monterey and newer. Windows users should install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL 2).

If you followed the quick start guide, you can skip this step.

Prerequisites​

Open a terminal window.
Download and install Node.js.

1. Install the IC SDK.​

sh -ci "$(curl -fsSL https://internetcomputer.org/install.sh)"

To customize your IC SDK installation, you can use the interactive installation prompt or set environment variables for a terminal session.

Confirm the IC SDK has been installed (you may need to open a new terminal window):

dfx --version

The IC SDK is comprised of:

  • dfx: A CLI tool used to create and manage projects, developer identities, and cycles.

  • dfxvm: A version manager for dfx. It is used to download a specific version of dfx, set a default version, and update to the latest version.

  • moc: The Motoko compiler to support Motoko canister development.

  • replica: A local instance of the software run by each node on the ICP mainnet. It is used to deploy and host your application locally for testing and development.

It also has dependencies of a few additional, important packages:

  • Rust CDK: A set of tools for developing Rust canisters.

  • Candid: An interface description language (IDL) used to interact with a canister's methods. A method is a function exposed by the canister that can be called by a user, another canister, or the application's frontend.

For troubleshooting common dfx errors, see IC SDK troubleshooting.

Next step​

Next, you must create a developer identity. This identity will be used to control and manage your project's canisters.