Prepare your Aptos Dev Environment

To kickstart your journey in the Aptos ecosystem, set up your environment as needed by your role. To interact with Aptos, you may simply install the Aptos command line interface (CLI). To develop Aptos itself, you will need to clone the Aptos-core repository.

See the Workflows for use cases associated with each path. See the Aptos developer resources for quick links to Aptos networks, SDKs, and other tools.

Use supported operating systems

Aptos can be built on various operating systems, including Linux, macOS. and Windows. Aptos is tested extensively on Linux and macOS, and less so on Windows. Here are the versions we use:

Linux - Ubuntu version 20.04 and 22.04
macOS - macOS Monterey and later
Microsoft Windows - Windows 10, 11 and Windows Server 2022+

See Installing Aptos CLI for instructions by operating system.

Meet hardware requirements

Aptos requires no specific hardware to develop on the blockchain. To run one of our nodes, see the hardware requirements for:

Workflows

CLI only

Most Aptos users will want to have the Aptos CLI installed. Install and use the Aptos CLI if you will:

Source code and CLI

In addition to installing the CLI, clone and review the Aptos repository if you will:

Run a fullnode.
Run a validator node.
Take the starter tutorials, many of which rely upon Aptos source code.
Extend and contribute to the Aptos blockchain itself; pull requests welcome!

Although Docker options exist for many of these configurations, you should download the Aptos source to become familiar with the inner workings of the blockchain once you are conducting this more advanced work.

Find information in the source

The Aptos source files themselves also contain a wealth of information in docs comments worth reviewing.

Install the Aptos CLI

Install the Aptos CLI to interact with the Aptos network. As a developer in the Aptos ecosystem, set up your development environment as described in the link. This tool will help you compile, test, and publish contracts as well as run contracts directly on the blockchain.

Clone the Aptos-core repo

As described in Workflows, you may interact with Aptos using only the CLI. For more advanced users, if you need the source you may clone the aptos-core GitHub repo from GitHub.

Install Git. Git is required to clone the aptos-core repo, and will be need to be installed prior to continuing. You can install it with the instructions on the official Git website.
Clone the Aptos repository. To clone the Aptos repository (repo), you first need to open a command line prompt (Terminal on Mac / Linux, Powershell on Windows). Then run the following command to clone the Git repository from GitHub.
```
git clone https://github.com/aptos-labs/aptos-core.git
```
Now let's go into the newly created directory aptos-core by changing directory or cding into it:
```
cd aptos-core
```

Set up build dependencies

Prepare your developer environment by installing the dependencies needed to build, test and inspect Aptos Core. No matter your selected mechanism for installing these dependencies, it is imperative you keep your entire toolchain up-to-date. If you encounter issues later, update all packages and try again.

macOS

> Using the automated script

Ensure you have brew package manager installed: https://brew.sh/
Run the dev setup script to prepare your environment: ./scripts/dev_setup.sh
Update your current shell environment: source ~/.cargo/env.

tip

You can see the available options for the script by running ./scripts/dev_setup.sh --help

> Manual installation of dependencies

If the script above doesn't work for you, you can install these manually, but it's not recommended.

Linux

> Using the automated script

Run the dev setup script to prepare your environment: ./scripts/dev_setup.sh
Update your current shell environment: source ~/.cargo/env

tip

You can see the available options for the script by running ./scripts/dev_setup.sh --help

> Manual installation of dependencies

If the script above does not work for you, you can install these manually, but it is not recommended:

Windows

> Using the automated script

Open a PowerShell terminal as an administrator.
Run the dev setup script to prepare your environment: PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ./scripts/windows_dev_setup.ps1

> Manual installation of dependencies

Install Rust.
Install LLVM. Visit their GitHub repository for the latest prebuilt release.
Install Microsoft Visual Studio Build Tools for Windows. During setup, select "Desktop development with C++" and three additional options: MSVC C++ build tools, Windows 10/11 SDK, and C++ CMake tools for Windows.
If on Windows ARM, install Visual Studio.
If not already installed during Visual Studio/Build Tools installation, install CMake.
Open a new PowerShell terminal after installing all dependencies

Check out release branch

Optionally, check out a release branch to install an Aptos node. We suggest you check out devnet for your first development. See Choose a network for an explanation of their differences.

Devnet
Testnet
Mainnet

git checkout --track origin/devnet

git checkout --track origin/testnet

git checkout --track origin/mainnet

Now your basic Aptos development environment is ready. Head over to our Developer Tutorials to get started in Aptos.

Create and fund test accounts

Use the Aptos CLI and wallet of your choice to create and fund an Aptos account in testnet (or devnet). For more options and details, see Create and Fund Aptos Accounts.