---
layout: page
title: "Set up Development Environment"
description: "Set up your environment to start developing for Home Assistant."
date: 2014-12-21 13:32
sidebar: true
comments: false
sharing: true
footer: true
---

You'll need to set up a development environment if you want to develop a new feature or component for Home Assistant. Read on to learn how to set up.

* Visit the [Home Assistant repository](https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant) and click **Fork**.

* Consider setting up a virtual environment using [`venv`](https://docs.python.org/3.4/library/venv.html) before running the setup script.

```bash
$ git clone https://github.com/YOUR_GIT_USERNAME/home-assistant.git
$ cd home-assistant
$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant.git
$ script/setup
```

* On Windows, you can use `python setup.py develop` instead of the setup script.

* Run `hass` to invoke your local installation.

### {% linkable_title Developing on Windows %}

If you are using Windows as a development platform, make sure that you have the correct Microsoft Visual C++ build tools installed. Check the [Windows Compilers](https://wiki.python.org/moin/WindowsCompilers) section on the [Python website](https://www.python.org/) for details. Validation using `tox` will fail if this is not done correctly. 

Also, make sure to install or upgrade the `setuptools` Python package. It contains compatibility improvements and adds automatic use of compilers: 

```bash
$ pip install --upgrade setuptools
```