# Before Using Agoric Software

Before working with the Agoric CLI, Zoe, and other Agoric tools and software, you need to install the following.

Step	Action	Explanation
1	Install Node.js, version 12.16.1 or higher
2	Install Yarn 1 (Yes, Yarn 1 and not a later version)	Yarn is a package manager for your code and lets developers share code with others. Code is shared via a package that contains all shared code and a package.json file describing the package. The link takes you to the Yarn install page, where you first select what operating system you want to install on. Your selection changes the page's content to give install instructions for that OS and links to the needed downloads.
3	Open a shell. The rest of this table's Actions take place in this shell.	A terminal on Macs; see Finder>Applications>Utilities>terminal To launch a bash shell at a specific folder on Windows 10: Navigate to that folder in File Explorer. Click the address bar while in that folder. Type bash in the address bar and press Enter
4	If you already have a ~/agoric-sdk directory, update it: cd agoric-sdk git checkout hackathon-2020-04 git pull	In the next step, if you don't have a copy of our agoric-sdk directory, you'll get one. This is in case you already have one and might need to update it.
5	If you don't have an ~/agoric-sdk directory with Agoric's SDK content in it, git clone --branch hackathon-2020-04 https://github.com/Agoric/agoric-sdk	Get the latest Agoric SDK from the Agoric GitHub repository. It goes into the agoric-sdk sub-directory of your home directory. If the agoric-sdk sub-directory doesn't already exist, this operation creates it. We will be using the hackathon-2020-04 branch of the repository, rather than the usual master.
6	cd ~/agoric-sdk	Change to the agoric-sdk subdirectory in your home directory.
7	yarn install	Install NPM dependencies.
8	yarn build	Build sources that need compiling. Note: build is not a standard yarn command, but one installed with the Agoric SDK.
9	Install the Agoric CLI by: yarn link-cli <agoric-cli's install directory>	Select a directory to install the Agoric CLI in. For example, yarn link-cli ~/bin/agoric The install directory need not already exist. In Agoric documentation, we use ~/bin/agoric as the CLI install directory.
10	If not already there, add the directory you installed the Agoric CLI in to your $PATH.	echo $PATH to see $PATH's current value.