# Your first app

Put an app on the Kode Dot in five minutes, from a computer or from your phone, with nothing to install.

## What it is

The fastest way to see the Kode Dot do something is to install an app
somebody already made. The marketplace at `apps.kode.diy` is the catalog:
every app on it has been tried on a real Kode Dot before being listed, and
installing one takes a cable or a phone, no account and no toolchain.

There are two ways in. From a computer, the browser writes the app over the
USB-C cable. From a phone, the Kode app sends it over Bluetooth. Both end the
same way: the Kode Dot reboots into the new app. What the catalog is, how
ratings work and how to publish your own is on `ecosystem/marketplace`; the
phone app has its own page at `ecosystem/mobile-app`. When you want to write
the app yourself, `build/first-build` is the next step.

## From a computer

1. Open `apps.kode.diy` in **Chrome or Edge**. The install goes through Web Serial, which Safari and Firefox do not have.
2. Plug the Kode Dot into the computer with a USB-C cable that carries data, not only charge.
3. Pick an app and press **Install over USB**, then choose the Kode Dot in the browser's port list.
4. Wait for the install to end. The Kode Dot reboots into the app.

With a Kode Dot added in the marketplace's sidebar, the button reads
**Install on** and its name, and there is no port list:
`ecosystem/marketplace` has that path.

## From a phone

1. Install the Kode app for iPhone or Android.
2. Turn the Kode Dot on and keep it within reach; the app finds it over Bluetooth.
3. Pick an app in the Kode app and press **Install**.
4. Wait for the install to end. The Kode Dot reboots into the app.

Installing over Bluetooth is marked beta: it ships, and **TBD**: a full
install on a production Kode Dot from the shipped app.

## Gotchas

> **WARNING**
>
> **The browser does not list the Kode Dot.** Either the browser is Safari or
> Firefox, which have no Web Serial, or the cable only carries charge. Try
> Chrome or Edge and a cable you have used for data before.

> **NOTE**
>
> **An app that replaces everything.** Most apps install next to the others
> under kodeOS. A few are full images and replace kodeOS itself; the
> marketplace says which kind an app is before you install it, and
> `ecosystem/marketplace` says how to get kodeOS back.