# Setting up ESP-IDF Development Environment

ESP-IDF is the official development framework for the Espressif ESP32 and ESP8266 series of microcontrollers. This guide will walk you through the process of setting up ESP-IDF on your system.

Before you begin, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

• A computer running a supported operating system (Linux, macOS, or Windows).
• Git installed on your system.
• Python 3.6 or later.
• CMake 3.5 or later.
• Ninja build system.
• GCC cross-compiler for the Xtensa architecture (provided by ESP-IDF).
• The idf.py tool for managing ESP-IDF projects.

Open a terminal and clone the ESP-IDF repository using Git:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf.git

2. Set up the development environment Navigate to the ESP-IDF directory and run the install.sh script to set up the development environment:

cd esp-idf
./install.sh

3. Configure ESP-IDF Run the following command to set up the ESP-IDF environment variables and configuration:

. ./export.sh

4. Verify your installation To ensure that your installation is successful, you can run the following command to check the ESP-IDF version:

idf.py --version

Create Your First Project Now that you have ESP-IDF set up, you can create your first ESP-IDF project:

1. Create a new project Navigate to the directory where you want to create your project and run:

idf.py create-project my_first_esp_project

2. Configure your project Change to your project directory:

cd my_first_esp_project

You can use the menuconfig command to configure your project settings:

idf.py menuconfig

3. Build and flash your project Build your project with the following command:

idf.py build

To flash your project to an ESP32 or ESP8266 device, use the following command:

idf.py -p <PORT? flash

Replace with the appropriate serial port of your ESP device.

Congratulations! You've successfully set up ESP-IDF and created your first project.

Additional Resources ESP-IDF Documentation ESP-IDF GitHub Repository