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Set Up Your Dev Environment

Code-native integrations and custom connectors are built with TypeScript using the @prismatic-io/spectral SDK. This article outlines recommendations on how to set up your development environment.

Operating system considerations​

You can develop Prismatic connectors and integrations on any operating system that supports Node.js (Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc). If you use Windows, you may find it helpful to work in a Windows Subsystem for Linux WSL environment.

Install Node.js​

Custom connectors and integrations are written in Node.js (with TypeScript layered on top). While many versions of Node.js can be used to build custom connectors and integrations, we recommend using the latest LTS version available on NodeJS.org.

Once you install Node.js, ensure that you can run both node --version and npm --version.

Node package managers​

While npm is the default package manager for Node.js, you can also use yarn, pnpm or bun if you prefer.

Install an IDE​

If you have a favorite code editor, use that. We've found that VS Code works great for custom connector development, but some of our developers prefer Sublime or neovim.

It's not necessary, but if you use VS Code we've found the following extensions helpful:

VS Code has built-in TypeScript IntelliSense (auto-complete), but if you want to use the latest-and-greatest, you can also install the TypeScript Nightly build extension.

Additionally, you may want to install the Prismatic VS Code extension to enhance your development workflow.

Install the Prismatic CLI tool​

The Prismatic CLI tool, prism is used for initializing and publishing custom connectors and integrations. You can install it after installing Node.js and npm with this command:

Install prism
npm install --global @prismatic-io/prism

Once you've installed prism, log in by typing prism login. You'll be prompted to enter your Prismatic credentials, and then to authorize prism to access your Prismatic account. Click Accept.

Once you've logged in, run prism me to verify that you are logged in.

$ prism me
Name: John Doe
Email: john.doe@example.com
Organization: Example Corp - US Region
Endpoint URL: https://app.prismatic.io