Quick start guide

This guide shows how to sign up with Toit, install the Toit firmware on your ESP32, setup your local development environment, and finally how to deploy a Toit app on your ESP32 over-the-air.

1. Get an ESP32

If you already have an ESP32 available, jump to step 2 to continue. Otherwise, you can buy one at digikey, or any other electronics distributor. Any board that contains a standard ESP32 chip (like the WROOM or WROVER) should be fine. If you have doubts, don't hesitate to ask for guidance on our Discord channel.

2. Install Jaguar

The following describes how to install a precompiled version of Jaguar, including a prebuilt ROM image that is suitable for most ESP32s. If you need to build from source, see the instructions at Github.

winget install --id=Toit.Jaguar -e

Run the command jag setup after installation to finish the setup of Jaguar. This step downloads the Toit SDK and an ESP32 image.

3. Flash

Connect your ESP32 to a USB port and run jag flash.

(On Linux this may fail with a permissions issue.)

Having issues? Get help in the troubleshoot section, or contact us in our Discord channel channel. We have some experience with flashing, and are happy to help.

4. Run code

Create a file hello.toit with the following content:

// Save as hello.toit
main:
  while true:
    print "Hello, World!"
    sleep --ms=3000

Run it with jag run hello.toit.

At this stage you won't see anything, as the output is emitted to the serial output (normally connected to your computer via USB).

Use jag monitor --attach to start listening to the serial output. The --attach flag is to make sure we don't reboot the device.

You should start seeing the "Hello, World!" messages printed out.

5. Install a container

With jag run a program is only run once, and disappears when the device is rebooted.

Use jag container install hello hello.toit to install the program as a container. After this the program will be rerun every time the device reboots.

6. Install Visual Studio Code

Toit comes with a Visual Studio Code extension, which significantly improves development of Toit code.

Install Visual Studio Code first. Then open the extensions menu and search for "Toit".

7. What's next?

Congratulations! You are now ready to start developing IoT applications using Toit. Next step, look in the tutorials or dive into the Toit language guide.