Installing nRF Connect SDK and VS Code
Follow the steps below to install the nRF Connect SDK, its toolchain, and VS Code IDE. Starting September 2023, It is now possible to download nRF Connect SDK and its toolchain directly from within VS Code, as explained in this guide.
Either watch the YouTube video or go through the text below.
1. Install nRF Command Line Tools.
Download the latest version that matches your operating system.
Download link: https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-tools/nRF-Command-Line-Tools/Download?lang=en#infotabs
Follow the instructions as shown in the video below to install nRF Command Line Tools on your machine :
Important
On Ubuntu and macOS, make sure to manually trigger the installation of the SEGGER J-Link Software that comes bundled with nRF Command Line Tools. The installation on Windows starts automatically.
nRF Command Line Tools contains nrfjprog which is an essential tool for flashing firmware to your development kits.
2. Install VS Code.
Go to https://code.visualstudio.com/download and install the version that matches your operating system.
3. Install nRF Connect Extension Pack.
In the Activity Bar, click the Extensions icon, then type nRF Connect for VS Code Extension Pack in the search field, and click on Install, as shown in the illustration below:
nRF Connect for VS Code extension pack allows developers to use the popular Visual Studio Code Integrated Development Environment (VS Code IDE) to develop, build, debug, and deploy embedded applications based on Nordic’s nRF Connect SDK (Software Development Kit). It includes an interface to the compiler, linker, the whole build system, an RTOS-aware debugger, a seamless interface to the nRF Connect SDK, the Devicetree Visual Editor, and an integrated serial terminal, among other valuable development tools.
nRF Connect for VS Code extension pack consists of the following components:
- nRF Connect for VS Code: The main extension containing an interface to the build system and nRF Connect SDK. It also provides an interface to manage nRF Connect SDK versions and toolchains and set an active SDK/toolchain version.
- nRF DeviceTree: Provides Devicetree language support and the Devicetree Visual Editor.
- nRF Kconfig: Provides Kconfig language support.
- nRF Terminal: A serial and RTT terminal.
- C/C++ from Microsoft: Adds language support for C/C++, including features such as IntelliSense.
- CMake: CMake language support.
- GNU Linker Map Files: Linker map files support.
We can download any nRF Connect SDK version of our preference and its toolchain through the extension. Complete documentation of the nRF Connect for VS Code is available here.
Note
It’s crucial to install the nRF Connect for VS Code Extension Pack, as shown in the video above, not just nRF Connect for VS Code, in order to get all the available features.
4. Install Toolchain.
The toolchain is a set of tools that are used together to build nRF Connect SDK applications. It includes the assembler, compiler, linker, and CMake, among other tools.
The first time you open nRF Connect for VS Code, it will prompt you to install a toolchain. This usually happens when the extension does not find any installed toolchain on your machine.
Click on Install Toolchain. It will list the available versions of toolchains that can be downloaded and installed on your machine. Select the toolchain version that matches the nRF Connect SDK version you plan to use. We always recommend using the latest tagged version of the nRF Connect SDK.
Installing the Toolchain will take some time, depending on your development platform specifications and internet speed. The video below is sped up.
5. Install nRF Connect SDK.
In nRF Connect for VS Code, click on Manage SDKs in the left margin under the WELCOME panel. Through the Manage SDKs, we can install, uninstall, and set the active nRF Connect SDK version. Since this is our first time using the extension, we will see only two options. Click on Install SDK. It will list the available versions of the nRF Connect SDK that can be downloaded and installed on your machine. Choose the nRF Connect SDK version you wish to use for your project development.
Note
If you have opened the SDK folder in VS Code, the Manage SDKs menu option will not be present, and you will instead see Manage west workspace. To fix this, open another window or folder in VS Code.
If you don’t see either options, make sure you have the latest version of the nRF Connect for VS Code extension pack.
Please note that the use of main is not encouraged. The main branch is the most current development status. It is not thoroughly tested, and no technical support is available. You only use main if you need to test the latest features earlier.
Development tags (ending with -dev) are temporary tags between two released tags.
Customer sampling tags (ending with -cs) are intended for customers participating in a customer sampling program for a new product.
In the illustration below, we are showing how to install nRF Connect SDK version 2.4.2. which is the latest released tag at the time of recording. Depending on your internet and machine speed, this will take some time to finish. The video below is sped up.
Important
We recommend installing the latest released tag of nRF Connect SDK listed to get all the latest features and patches.
With this, we have completed the installation of nRF Connect SDK and VS Code. The following exercise will teach us how to build and flash our first nRF Connect SDK application to our board.
It’s also worth noting that nRF Connect SDK is IDE agnostic, which means you can use it with the IDE of your choice or without an IDE. It is possible to download and install the nRF Connect using a command-line interface (CLI) through nRF Util (nrfutil). However, we highly recommend using VS Code with our nRF Connect for VS Code extension pack as it contains both a convenient graphical user interface (GUI) and an efficient command-line interface (CLI) in one place, in addition to many features that make firmware development much easier. Setting up another IDE to work with the nRF Connect SDK will require some extra manual steps that are out of the scope of this course.
