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 conda-token
The conda-token
tool is used to authenticate your Anaconda.com organization access token and configure the default_channels:
in your .condarc
file to use Anaconda’s private repository channels. For more information, see Channels.
-
Open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal on macOS/Linux).
-
Install
conda-token
by running the following command: -
Enter
y
when prompted to proceed with the installation.
Authenticating to Anaconda
Anaconda uses private tokens to authenticate users to their organizations. You must be assigned a seat within an organization to activate a token. Once you’re assigned a seat, you can generate a private token for yourself at any time.
- Go to your organization’s page.
- Select Token Access from the left-hand navigation.
- Select Activate token if it is the first time you are receiving a token, or Reissue token if you are obtaining a new token. Your private token displays until copied. Keep this token somewhere safe!
- Configure conda to use your token using either Navigator or the CLI:
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 in the channel listed at the top of the channels:
list first. If that channel contains the requested package, it is downloaded from that channel.
If the requested package is not located in that channel, conda will search for the package in the next entry of the channels:
list.
When conda reaches the defaults
entry of the channels:
list, it searches the channels listed under the default_channels:
list, in the same descending order. This is called “channel priority”.
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 organizations’ channels, you must be authenticated (in other words, you need to have issued yourself an organization access token and set that token), and 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.
Adding conda-forge
as a channel
If you need to install packages from the conda-forge
repository, you can do so in either Navigator or the CLI:
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)
environment
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:
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:
You will be 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:
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