# 1. Environment Setup

### Set up your environment

Make sure your development environment includes [Node.js](https://nodejs.org) and an npm package manager.

To check if you have Node.js installed, run this command in your terminal:

```
node -v
```

To confirm that you have npm installed, you can run this command in your terminal:

```
npm -v
```

### Install Create React App

You'll need to have Node v8.16.0 or Node v10.16.0 or a later version on your machine.

```
npx create-react-app my-first-hat-app
```

If you use npm 5.1 or earlier you can't use **npx**. Instead, install **create-react-app** globally:

```
npm install -g create-react-app
create-react-app my-first-hat-app
```

And you can start by typing:

```
cd my-first-hat-app
npm start
```

Then open <http://localhost:3000/> to see your app.

Testing HATs are configured to support requests from <https://localhost:3000> by default. If you run the project locally on a different port, the requests will not come through by the CORS policy.

### Install HAT-JS

Now you can install the HAT-JS:

```
npm install @dataswift/hat-js
```

You'll need to restart the server every time you install a package using npm. You can use **Ctrl + C** to stop the server and **npm start** to start the server.


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