Quickstart guide
This quickstart guide is intended to help you create an Anaconda account, obtain conda software, and configure it to access your instance of Anaconda.
Creating an account
Click here to create an Anaconda.com account
From here you have several options for account registration:
- Sign up manually with an email and password
- Authenticate with a GitHub, Gmail, or Microsoft account
Signing up manually
- Click Sign Up with Email.
- Enter your name, email address, and password.
- Check your email for the verification email.
- Click the verification link in your email to complete account verification.
- (Optional) Complete the user survey. This survey helps Anaconda get to know you as a user and improve your experience in the future.
Subscribing to Anaconda
For information and help with managing subscriptions, see Subscriptions.
Installing Anaconda software
Installing conda
You can obtain conda by installing either Anaconda Distribution or Miniconda. If you already have conda installed, skip ahead to Installing Anaconda Navigator.
If you do not have conda installed, download either Anaconda Distribution or Miniconda and install it on your system before proceeding. If you’re unsure which to download, refer to our Getting Started with Anaconda topic for guidance.
Installing Anaconda Navigator
Anaconda Navigator is a desktop graphical user interface (GUI) that uses conda to help you manage your environments. If you installed Anaconda Distribution, you already have Anaconda Navigator and can skip ahead to Installing conda-token.
If you installed Miniconda, you can install Anaconda Navigator by opening Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux) and running the following command:
If you received a “conda: command not found” error, see this troubleshooting topic to resolve the issue.
Installing anaconda-auth
The anaconda-auth
package is used to authenticate (log you in) to your Anaconda.com organization. It can be used to issue and set an Anaconda.com organization access token and automatically configures your .condarc
file to utilize Anaconda’s curated repository channels. For more information about the anaconda-auth
package, see anaconda-auth reference.
-
Open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux).
-
Install
anaconda-auth
:
If you already have anaconda-auth
installed, it’s best practice to update to the latest version from time to time:
Authenticating to Anaconda
In order to authenticate to Anaconda, you must issue and set a token for your organization.
You must be assigned a seat within your organization to issue yourself a token.
If you do not have a seat assigned, speak with your organization administrator. Once you’ve been assigned a seat, you can issue a token for yourself at any time.
There are two methods for issuing and setting your organization access token:
-
Open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux).
-
Verify that you have
anaconda-auth
installed by running the following command:If you do not have
anaconda-auth
installed, see Installing anaconda-auth. -
Issue and set your token by running the following command:
This command initiates a sign-in workflow in a browser window. If you are already signed in, authentication is automatically completed. If you are not signed in, you are prompted to sign in with your Anaconda.com credentials.
If your company has set up SSO, you are redirected to your company’s SSO login page.
If you belong to more than one organization, use the arrow keys to select the organization you want to issue and set a token for.
This command also configures your
.condarc
file to use Anaconda’s curated repository channels atrepo.anaconda.cloud
. -
Return to your terminal and follow the prompts to complete the workflow.
-
Open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux).
-
Verify that you have
anaconda-auth
installed by running the following command:If you do not have
anaconda-auth
installed, see Installing anaconda-auth. -
Issue and set your token by running the following command:
This command initiates a sign-in workflow in a browser window. If you are already signed in, authentication is automatically completed. If you are not signed in, you are prompted to sign in with your Anaconda.com credentials.
If your company has set up SSO, you are redirected to your company’s SSO login page.
If you belong to more than one organization, use the arrow keys to select the organization you want to issue and set a token for.
This command also configures your
.condarc
file to use Anaconda’s curated repository channels atrepo.anaconda.cloud
. -
Return to your terminal and follow the prompts to complete the workflow.
If you prefer to use applications with a user interface to complete your workflows, you can issue yourself a token from Anaconda.com and set it using Anaconda Navigator.
- Navigate to your Organizations page.
- Select your organization.
- Under Org Management, select Token Access.
- Select Activate token, then click Copy.
- Launch Anaconda Navigator.
- Click Connect, then select Sign in beside Package Security Manager Cloud.
- Paste your token, then click Set token.
For information about where your token is stored on your system, see Token storage.
Important information about the .condarc
file
The .condarc
file is a configuration file that tells conda where to look for packages. Here is an example of what your .condarc
file might look like:
Conda searches for requested packages starting with the first entry in the channels:
list in your .condarc
file. If the requested package is not located in that channel, conda continues searching using the next entry in the channels:
list.
When conda reaches the defaults
entry in the channels:
list, it searches the channels listed under the default_channels:
list, in the same descending order. This is called “channel priority”, and it determines which source conda uses first when resolving packages.
In this example for Business tier, conda will look for a requested package in your organization’s channel first, then will look in the default channels in listed order, starting with https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/main
, then https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/r
, and finally, in https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/msys2
.
For Pro tier (legacy), conda will look in the default channels in listed order, starting with https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/main
, then https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/r
, and finally, in https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/msys2
.
For more information regarding the .condarc
file, see the official conda documentation.
Viewing your .condarc
file
You can view and edit your .condarc
file in either Navigator or the CLI:
Adding an organization channel to your .condarc
file
Business tier only.
In order to access packages from your organization’s channels, you must configure your .condarc
file to tell conda where the channel is located.
Complete the following steps to add one of your organizations’ channels to your .condarc
file:
-
Select your organization.
-
Select Channels from the left-hand navigation.
-
Select Copy channel path.
-
Open your terminal and run the following command:
This command adds the specified channel to the top of your
channels:
list, giving it top priority when conda is searching for packages. For more information about channel priority and additional conda config command arguments, see Channels.
If you want to use your organizations’ channels exclusively, make sure that they are the only channels present in your .condarc
’s channels:
list.
Enabling community channels
Community channels must be enabled by an organization administrator before they can be used. To enable community channels:
- Navigate to your Organizations page.
- Select your organization.
- Select Channels from the left-hand navigation.
- Select the Community packages tab.
- Click Enable Channel beside the channel.
- Click Confirm to accept the Terms of Service (ToS) and enable the channel.
Access to community channels can also be managed by an administrator from the Organization Settings page.
Using Anaconda behind a firewall or proxy (Optional)
Some companies have security policies that prevent communications on their network with external servers like Anaconda. Under these circumstances, you’ll need to connect to your company’s firewall/proxy server in order to download packages successfully.
To connect to a firewall/proxy server, you’ll need to include a proxy_servers:
section in the .condarc
file that contains the URL to the proxy server. This entry must also contain a username and password for logging in to the proxy server. Speak with your IT Administrator if you do not have this information.
There are no commands to include this portion of the .condarc
file, so you need to manually include the following lines:
If your password contains special characters, you’ll need to escape them using percent encoding as described here.
You’ll also need to work with your IT team to allowlist connections to the main package repositories once you’ve configured your connection to the firewall/proxy server. The main package repositories are:
In some situations, it is necessary to export the HTTP_PROXY
and HTTPS_PROXY
environment variables to utilize the proxy server. To export your environment variables, open a terminal and run the following commands:
For more information about using conda behind a proxy server, see Configure conda for use behind a proxy server.
Enabling environment management
Administrators can enhance organizational security by requiring members to log their local conda environments with the organization. Environments that are logged with an organization can be monitored, scanned, and blocked from use if a vulnerability is discovered. For more information about logging, scanning, and managing environments, see Environments.
Implementing environment logging requires coordination at the organizational level.
Prerequisites
Environment logging and scanning requires the following:
-
Python 3.10 or later in your
(base)
environmentVerifying Python in your (base) environment
Check to see which Python version you have in
(base)
by opening Anaconda Prompt (Terminal for macOS/Linux) and running the following command:The output of the command might look something similar to this:
If you need to upgrade Python, run the following command:
Updating Python in your (base) environment can affect other installed packages. Review the proposed changes carefully before proceeding.
Installing required plugins
Environment logging and scanning requires the installation of a few plugins in your (base)
environment that expand the functionality of conda.
Obtain the necessary plugins by installing the anaconda-env-manager
“metapackage” (which contains all of the plugins listed below). To install anaconda-env-manager
, run the following command:
Plugins provided by the anaconda-env-manager metapackage
Plugins provided by the anaconda-env-manager metapackage
The following plugins extend the functionality of your installation of conda:
-
anaconda-env-log
- Automatically logs the current state of an environment whenever a user performs acreate
,install
,remove
,rename
, orupdate
action with conda (manual logging of existing environments is also supported). -
anaconda-activate-check
- Provides checks that validate environments against administrator-defined security controls before activation and notifies users of warnings or access restrictions with guidance for resolution. -
anaconda-audit
- Allows you to scan local environments to assess the security impact of actions like installing or updating packages, so you can proactively address potential issues without requiring administrator intervention. It also serves as a valuable tool for identifying issues when troubleshooting security concerns flagged by administrators.
Once you’ve installed anaconda-env-manager
, it is a good idea to keep it updated by running conda update anaconda-env-manager
periodically.
Registering your organization
To ensure your environments are properly logged to your organization on Anaconda.com, you must log in via the CLI and register your organization with conda. To register your organization:
-
Open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux).
-
Authenticate to Anaconda by running the following command:
When prompted for your username and password, enter your Anaconda.com credentials and complete the login process in the browser window that opens.
-
After successfully logging in, return to the command line and register your organization by running the following command:
With the organization registered (and anaconda-env-log
installed in the (base)
environment), newly created environments are logged to the registered organization.
Verifying your configurations
Test your configurations and verify that conda downloads packages from the desired channel in either Navigator or the CLI: