Getting Started with Flutter

This chapter walks through installing the Flutter SDK, checking your environment, and creating and running a first app. Flutter apps are written in Dart, an object-oriented language from Google whose syntax will feel familiar if you know Java, TypeScript or Kotlin. The Dart SDK ships inside the Flutter SDK, so there is nothing extra to install.

Install the Flutter SDK

There are two common ways to install it:

1. Through VS Code: install the Flutter extension, run Flutter: New Project from the command palette, and if no SDK is found the extension offers to download and set it up for you. This is the quickest path for beginners.
2. Manually: download the SDK archive for your OS from docs.flutter.dev, extract it, and add its bin folder to your PATH.

If you are comfortable with Git, you can also clone the stable channel directly:

# Clone the stable channel
git clone https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git -b stable

# macOS/Linux: add Flutter to PATH in your shell profile (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc)
export PATH="$HOME/flutter/bin:$PATH"

# Verify
flutter --version

On Windows, add the bin folder of the extracted SDK (for example C:\src\flutter\bin) to the Path environment variable and open a new terminal. To move to the latest stable release later, run flutter upgrade.

Check your setup with flutter doctor

One Flutter codebase can target Android, iOS, web, Windows, macOS and Linux, but each target needs its own platform tooling. flutter doctor reports what is installed and what is missing.

flutter doctor

# More detail
flutter doctor -v

# Accept the Android SDK licenses (once, for Android development)
flutter doctor --android-licenses

You only need the tools for the platforms you plan to build for:

iOS apps can only be built on macOS. If you are on Windows or Linux, start with the Android emulator, Chrome or a desktop target.

Create and run a project

Create a project with flutter create. Project names follow Dart package naming: lowercase letters and underscores.

flutter create hello_app
cd hello_app

# List connected devices, emulators and browsers
flutter devices

# Run on the default device
flutter run

# Pick a specific device
flutter run -d chrome
flutter run -d windows

Use --org com.example to set the prefix of the Android package name and iOS bundle identifier, and --platforms=android,ios to generate only the platforms you need.

The generated project is a counter app. Its entry point is the main function in lib/main.dart, and the widget passed to runApp becomes the whole screen. A minimal version looks like this:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return const MaterialApp(
      home: Scaffold(
        body: Center(child: Text('Hello, Flutter!')),
      ),
    );
  }
}

Hot reload

While flutter run is active, saving a file in your editor triggers hot reload. In a terminal session, use these keys:

Hot reload works in debug mode and is the heart of the Flutter workflow: change a widget, see the result in about a second. Changes to main or to initial state values need a hot restart.

Editor setup

• VS Code: install the Flutter extension (it installs the Dart extension too), pick a device in the status bar, and press F5 to debug.
• Android Studio or IntelliJ IDEA: install the Flutter plugin from the plugin settings. Managing Android emulators is convenient here.
• Both editors can open DevTools for inspecting the widget tree and profiling performance.

Summary

• The Flutter SDK includes the Dart SDK; install it through the VS Code extension or from the SDK archive.
• Run flutter doctor to check the tooling for each target platform.
• Create a project with flutter create and run it with flutter run.
• Hot reload applies code changes instantly while keeping app state.