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 nRF Connect SDK 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 13	Not applicable	Tier 3	Tier 3
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.

nRF Connect SDK toolchain

The nRF Connect SDK toolchain includes the Zephyr SDK and then adds on top of it tools and modules required to build nRF Connect SDK samples and applications.

Required tools

The following table shows the tools that are required for working with nRF Connect SDK v2.5.3. It lists the versions that are used for testing and installed when using the Toolchain Manager. Other versions might also work, but are not verified.

WindowsLinuxmacOS

Tool	Toolchain Manager version
Zephyr SDK	0.16.1
CMake	3.20.5
dtc	1.4.7-1
Git	2.37.3.windows.1
gperf	3.1
ninja	1.9.0
Python	3.8.2
West	1.0.0

Required Python dependencies

The following table shows the Python packages that are required for working with nRF Connect SDK v2.5.3. 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	>=35.0.0
ecdsa
imagesize	>=1.2.0
intelhex
packaging
progress
pyelftools	>=0.27
pylint
PyYAML
west	>=1.0.0
windows-curses (only Windows)

Building documentation

Python documentation dependencies are listed in the following table. They can all be installed using the doc/requirements.txt file using pip.

Package	Version
azure-storage-blob
breathe
m2r2
PyYAML
pykwalify
recommonmark
sphinx	~=6.2
sphinx-copybutton
sphinx-ncs-theme	<1.1
sphinx-notfound-page
sphinx-tabs	>=3.4
sphinx-togglebutton
sphinx_markdown_tables
sphinxcontrib-mscgen
sphinxcontrib-plantuml
west	>=1.0.0