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Set up your development environment

This document will guide you to set up your development environment to efficiently and properly use Medusa.

Required Tools​

To get your development environment ready you need to install the following tools:

Node.js​

Node.js is the environment that makes it possible for Medusa to run, so you must install Node.js on your computer to start Medusa development.

Medusa supports versions 14 and 16 of Node.js. You can check your Node.js version using the following command:

node -v
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You can install the executable directly from the Node.js website.

For other approaches, you can check out Node.js’s guide.

Git​

Medusa uses Git behind the scenes when you create a new project so you'll have to install it on your computer to get started.

To install Git on Windows, you need to download the installable package.

Medusa CLI​

The final installation required to get started with Medusa is the Medusa CLI. It is an NPM package you can install globally on your machine to get instant access to commands that help you manage and run your Medusa project.

You can install Medusa’s CLI with the following command:

npm install @medusajs/medusa-cli -g
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If you run into any errors while installing the CLI tool, check out the troubleshooting guide.

Optional Tools​

These tools are not required to have to run a Medusa server, but it's highly recommended that you have them installed.

PostgreSQL​

Although you can use an SQLite database with Medusa which would require no necessary database installations, it is recommended to use a PostgreSQL database for your server.

After installing PostgreSQL, check out the Configure your Server documentation to learn how to configure PostgreSQL to work with Medusa.

You can download the PostgreSQL Windows installer from their website.

Redis​

Medusa uses Redis as the event queue in the server. If you want to use subscribers to handle events such as when an order is placed and perform actions based on the events, then you need to install and configure Redis.

If you don’t install and configure Redis with your Medusa server, then it will work without any events-related features.

After installing Redis, check out the Configure your Server documentation to learn how to configure Redis to work with Medusa.

To use Redis on Windows, you must have Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) enabled. This lets you run Linux binaries on Windows.

After installing and enabling WSL2, if you use an Ubuntu distribution you can run the following commands to install Redis:

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sudo apt-add-repository ppa:redislabs/redis
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install redis-server

## Start Redis server
sudo service redis-server start
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What’s Next​