Requirements

The nRF Connect SDK supports Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS for development. However, there are some Zephyr features that are currently only available on Linux, including:

  • twister

  • BlueZ integration

  • net-tools integration

  • Native Port (native_posix)

  • BabbleSim

Note

Before you start setting up the toolchain, install available updates for your operating system.

Supported operating systems

The following table shows the operating system versions that support the nRF Connect SDK tools:

Operating System

x86

x64

ARM64

Windows 11

Tier 3

Tier 3

Not supported

Windows 10

Tier 3

Tier 1

Not supported

Linux - Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Not supported

Tier 3

Not supported

Linux - Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Not supported

Tier 1

Not supported

macOS 12

Not applicable

Tier 2

Tier 2

macOS 11

Not applicable

Tier 1

Not supported

macOS 10.15

Not applicable

Tier 3

Not supported

The table uses the following tier definitions to categorize the level of operating system support:

Tier 1

The nRF Connect SDK tools will always work. The automated build and automated testing ensure that the nRF Connect SDK tools build and successfully complete tests after each change.

Tier 2

The nRF Connect SDK tools will always build. The automated build ensures that the nRF Connect SDK tools build successfully after each change. There is no guarantee that a build will work because the automation tests do not always run.

Tier 3

The nRF Connect SDK tools are supported by design but are not built or tested after each change. Therefore, the application may or may not work.

Not supported

The nRF Connect SDK tools do not work, but it may be supported in the future.

Not applicable

The specified architecture is not supported for the respective operating system.

Note

The nRF Connect SDK tools are not supported by the older versions of the operating system.

Required tools

The following table shows the tools that are required for working with nRF Connect SDK v2.1.1. It lists the minimum version that is required and the version that is installed when using the Toolchain Manager as described in Installing automatically.

Tool

Minimum version

Toolchain Manager version

Zephyr SDK

0.14.1

0.14.1

CMake

3.20.0

3.20.5

dtc

1.4.6

1.4.7-1

Git

2.20.0

2.26.2.windows.1

gperf

3.1

3.1

ninja

1.8.2

1.9.0

Python

3.6

3.8.2

West

0.12.0

0.13.1

Required Python dependencies

The following table shows the Python packages that are required for working with nRF Connect SDK v2.1.1. If no version is specified, the default version provided with pip is recommended. If a version is specified, it is important that the installed version matches the required version.

The Toolchain Manager will install all Python dependencies into a local environment in the Toolchain Manager app, not the system. If you install manually, see Install additional Python dependencies for instructions on how to install the Python dependencies and Updating repositories and tools for information about how to keep them updated.

Building and running applications, samples, and tests

Package

Version

anytree

canopen

cbor2

>=5.4.2.post1

click

cryptography

>=2.6

ecdsa

imagesize

>=1.2.0

intelhex

packaging

progress

pyelftools

>=0.27

pylint

PyYAML

==5.4.1

west

>=0.14.0

windows-curses (only Windows)

Building documentation

Package

Version

recommonmark

==0.6.0

sphinxcontrib-mscgen

>=0.6

breathe

>=4.34

sphinx

~=5.0

sphinx-ncs-theme

>=1.0.3,<1.1

sphinx-tabs

sphinxcontrib-svg2pdfconverter