# Getting Started with Pear

Pear Runtime can be installed from the [pears.com](pears.com) or via [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/).

Since `npm` (or equivalent package manager) is needed to install application dependencies this guide will walk through installing `pear` with `npm`.

> [Build with Pear - Episode 01: Developing with Pear](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2G97xz78gU)

## Requirements

Pear runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

The `pear` CLI can be installed from [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/), which comes with [`node`](https://nodejs.org/en/about). 

The `npm` package manager can also be used to install application dependencies later on.

On MacOS and Linux, we recommend installing `node` using [`nvm`](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm#installing-and-updating)

On Windows we recommend installing `node` with [`nvs`](https://github.com/jasongin/nvs#setup).

> The Pear Runtime does not rely on `node`, `node` is only needed to install and run the `npm` package manager.

## Setup

To install Pear run the following command:

```sh
npm i -g pear
```

To complete the setup, run the `pear` command.

```
pear
```

If a Pear application, such as [Keet](https://keet.io), is already installed then the Pear platform is already available. In this case, running `pear` should show help output.
 
If not, the first run of `pear` will fetch the platform from peers, after which running `pear` again should output help information.

To check that Pear is fully working, try the following command:

```
pear run pear://keet
```

Pear loads applications from peers, so this command should open [Keet](https://keet.io) whether or not it was downloaded and installed beforehand.


## Next

* [Starting a Pear Desktop Project](./starting-a-pear-desktop-project.md)
* [Starting a Pear Terminal Project](./starting-a-pear-terminal-project.md)