The Development Environment

Before you can start programming a robot, you'll need to install some software.

See also: WPILib's guide.

Installing WPILib

WPILib is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Download the installer from this link (under the "Assets" section).

After you download and run the installer, it will prompt you to choose to install "tools only" or "everything." Unless you already have a preferred code editor installed, you should choose "everything" and select "download for this computer only" when it prompts you to install VS Code.

Downloading the code

Head over to our GitHub organization and either use VSCode's "Git: Clone" command to download the latest code or download it as a ZIP if you don't intend to change.

Using an alternative editor (optional)

If you chose not to install VS Code with the WPILib installer, you'll probably want to set up your editor of choice for use with WPILib.

First, you'll want Java IDE support. This comes built in on most IDEs such as IntelliJ, but if not you may need to find and install a plugin.

Then, you should install the WPILib extension, if there is one for your editor. VS Code has an official extension and IntelliJ has this well-supported community plugin.