Install

You are viewing documentation for an unreleased version of Craft CMS. Please be aware that the material is changing frequently and may be incomplete or inaccurate, and links may point back to older versions.

The prevalence of modern, mature PHP development tools and infrastructure makes Craft easy to install, run, upgrade, and deploy.

This quick-start guide focuses solely on setting up a local Craft development environment to try out the alpha. Downloading or installing Craft by any means (including alpha releases) binds you to its license (opens new window).

#Quick-Start

Your journey with Craft begins on your local machine, using DDEV (opens new window). DDEV is a Docker-based PHP development environment that streamlines the creation and management of resources required by a Craft project.

Install or update DDEV (opens new window), then follow these steps:

  1. Create a project directory and move into it:

    mkdir my-craft-project
    cd my-craft-project/
    
  2. Create DDEV configuration files:

    # Note the new project type for 6.x!
    ddev config --project-type=laravel --docroot=public --php-version=8.5 --database=mysql:8.4
    
  3. Scaffold the project from the official starter project (opens new window):

    ddev composer create-project "craftcms/craft:^6.0.0-alpha.1"
    

    The setup wizard will start automatically! Accept all defaults (in [square brackets]), and note your chosen username and password.

    Our First-Time Setup (opens new window) guide in the Knowledge Base has more information about what to expect during setup.

Congratulations! You now have a fully-functional Craft application installed and configured. Run ddev launch to view the starter project’s welcome screen.

We have a list of recommended next steps for new Craft users in the 5.x installation guide.