# Installation

Add Bud to a Vite project without changing how you develop it.

## Requirements

- Node 26.12 or newer
- Vite 8.3 or newer, serving your pages through its HTML pipeline
- A Git repository with `user.name` and `user.email` set
- Google Chrome, or Chromium from `npx playwright install chromium`, for the canvas's screenshots

## Install Bud

Bud is one package, `@bud.sh/app`: the app, its Vite plugin and the `bud` command. Install it as a development dependency:

```sh
npm install -D @bud.sh/app
```

## Add Bud to Vite

Add `bud()` next to your existing plugins:

```ts title="vite.config.ts"
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import { bud } from '@bud.sh/app/vite'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [bud()],
})
```

Create a config in the same directory:

```ts title="bud.config.ts"
import { defineConfig } from '@bud.sh/app'

export default defineConfig({
  name: 'My project',
  routes: ['/', '/pricing', '/blog/hello-world'],
})
```

## Start

Run your usual dev command, such as `npm run dev`. The terminal prints a **Bud** URL next to your app's URL. Open it, and edit a page to see it update on the canvas.

Bud only runs during development and adds nothing to your production build.

## Check what's set up

Bud shows only what your project has set up: without a task store there's no **Tasks**, without a discussion store no comments, and without a sandbox plugin no factory. To see what's there and what each missing piece needs, run the doctor in your project:

```sh
npx bud doctor
```

It lists tasks, comments, their sync and the factory, each with what it needs and a link to its guide.

> [!WARNING] Custom server rendering
> If your server renders HTML itself, it must pass it through `transformIndexHtml`. See [Vite and custom servers](/docs/app/getting-started/vite).

## What's next

- [Choose your routes](/docs/app/getting-started/configuration) and the viewports the canvas shows.
- Set up [tasks](/docs/app/guides/tasks) with Beads, so comments can become work.
- Turn on the [factory](/docs/app/guides/factory): coding agents finish tasks in sandboxes, and nothing is pushed until someone approves.
- [Host Bud on Cloudflare](/docs/app/collaboration/hosting) for your whole team, for a GitHub repository.