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Prepare 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.

Then review the Aptos source code, found in the Aptos-core repository of GitHub, and continue your journey through this site. The source contains READMEs and code comments invaluable to developing on Aptos.

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:

Although Docker options exist for many of these configurations, you should download the Aptos source to become familiar with the innerworkings 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 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.

Clone the Aptos-core repo​

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

  1. Clone the Aptos repo.

    git clone https://github.com/aptos-labs/aptos-core.git

  2. cd into aptos-core directory.

    cd aptos-core

  3. Update your current shell environment to run cargo build and other Aptos-related commands:

    source ~/.cargo/env

  4. Optionally, check out a release branch to install an Aptos node:

    Check out the testnet branch using:

    git checkout --track origin/testnet

Prepare development environment​

Prepare your developer environment by installing the dependencies needed to build, test and inspect Aptos Core. You can do this either via the Aptos dev_setup.sh Bash script or by manually installing all dependencies. as shown below.

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.

Use the script​

The dev_setup.sh script currently supports macOS and Ubuntu Linux with other Linux distributions working but untested. The script does not support Windows. Note, you may be prompted for your password:

./scripts/dev_setup.sh
tip

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

Install packages manually​

If the script doesn't work for your operating system, manually install these packages:

See dev_setup.sh for other potential packages needed in your environment.

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

Understand the Aptos Token Standard​

The Aptos Token Standard lays out the rules for creating and distributing digital assets on the Aptos blockchain.

Find Aptos developer resources​

This section contains links to frequently referred Aptos developer resources.

Aptos Explorer​

Aptos mainnet​

Aptos testnet​

Aptos devnet​

Aptos CLI​

Aptos SDK​

IDE plugins for Move language​