How to Start
No prior Zephyr experience needed. By the end of this section you will have a working Zephyr workspace, a compiled firmware binary, and a board running your first program.
What you'll need
- Any of the supported ESP32 boards listed below
- A Linux or macOS machine (Windows via WSL2 works)
- USB cable for flashing (esptool, no J-Link required)
- ~5 GB disk space for the Zephyr SDK
Supported chip families
Zephyr runs on 1,000+ boards across all major chip vendors:
| Vendor | Families |
|---|---|
| Espressif | ESP32, ESP32-S2, ESP32-S3, ESP32-C3, ESP32-C6, ESP32-H2 |
| Nordic Semiconductor | nRF51, nRF52, nRF53, nRF54 |
| STMicroelectronics | STM32F, STM32G, STM32H, STM32L, STM32U, STM32WL |
| NXP | iMX8/9, LPC5, MIMXRT, MCX |
| Texas Instruments | CC13xx, CC26xx, MSPM0 |
| Silicon Labs | EFM32, EFR32 |
| Microchip | SAMD, SAMR, PIC32 |
| Infineon | PSoC, XMC |
| GigaDevice | GD32 (including RISC-V variants) |
For the full list, see docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/boards.
What's in this section
| Page | What you'll do |
|---|---|
| What is Zephyr? | Short intro — what it is, why it exists, who uses it |
| Environment Setup & West | Install west, the Zephyr SDK, and learn the daily commands |
| Hello World | Build and flash your first Zephyr application |
| Build System | What happens inside west build and how to read errors |
Time estimate
30–60 minutes for a clean install. If you already have Python and a package manager, closer to 20.
tip
If you get stuck on environment setup, the Zephyr Getting Started Guide is the authoritative reference. This section focuses on the fastest path to a working build.