KernDX

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Set Up Your Computer ​

What this is: the one-time setup every guide on this site assumes, and the answers to what goes wrong with a computer rather than with a guide. Why it exists: so each guide can start at its first step, and so a failure that belongs to your machine is answered once, here. Who should read it: anyone about to follow a Fast Start or the install guide for the first time. Come back to "If something went wrong" whenever a guide's Common Issues section sends you here.

Table of Contents ​

Expand
  1. What you need
  2. Use Command Prompt on Windows
  3. Log in to your org
  4. Work from your project's top folder
  5. Check you are ready
  6. If something went wrong

What you need ​

Three tools, each installed the way its maker describes. Install them in this order, then close and reopen your terminal so it can find them.

  1. Node.js, version 22 (the download page). Every script that comes with KernDX runs on it, and the Salesforce CLI can install through it.
  2. Git (the download page). On Windows the installer is called Git for Windows; accept its defaults.
  3. The Salesforce CLI (the install page). Take the installer for your system, or install it with npm once Node is in place.

In the terminal, to install the CLI with npm:

shell
npm install -g @salesforce/cli

You should see npm finish without an error line. Then check that the CLI answers:

shell
sf version

You should see a line that starts with @salesforce/cli/.

Use Command Prompt on Windows ​

Every command on this site runs as written in Command Prompt on Windows and in the terminal a Mac or Linux opens by default. Windows has a second terminal, PowerShell, and most editors open that one unless told otherwise. Most commands still work there, but not all, and its rules for quotes differ, so the guides promise Command Prompt and nothing else. One line tells you which terminal you are in:

Windows (Command Prompt)

bat
ver

macOS or Linux

bash
uname -sr

You should see a Windows version line such as Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26100.33438], or on a Mac a line that starts with Darwin, on Linux, a line that names the Linux kernel and its version. If Windows answers that ver is not recognized, you are in PowerShell: the first entry under "If something went wrong" says what to do.

In Visual Studio Code ​

VS Code opens PowerShell in its built-in terminal unless you tell it otherwise. Two ways to get Command Prompt, both from VS Code's own page on terminal profiles:

  • For this one terminal: on the Terminal panel, click the small arrow beside the plus sign and choose Command Prompt.
  • For good: open the Command Palette (F1), run Terminal: Select Default Profile, and choose Command Prompt. Every new terminal then opens in Command Prompt, in your project's top folder.

In a JetBrains IDE ​

IntelliJ IDEA and its siblings also open PowerShell on Windows. Open Settings, then Tools, then Terminal, and set Shell path to cmd.exe, as JetBrains' page on the terminal emulator describes. New terminal tabs then open in Command Prompt.

On a Mac or Linux ​

The built-in terminal of any editor already runs your system's own shell. There is nothing to change.

Log in to your org ​

In the terminal, replacing YourOrgAlias with any short name you like (the guides use it in every command):

shell
sf org login web --alias YourOrgAlias

A browser window opens. Log in there, allow the CLI when Salesforce asks, and close the window when it says you can. Then confirm the CLI remembers the org:

shell
sf org list

You should see your alias in the list.

Work from your project's top folder ​

Every command in every guide runs from the folder that holds sfdx-project.json. In VS Code and in a JetBrains IDE the built-in terminal opens there when the project is open. No project yet? Create an empty one.

In the terminal:

shell
sf project generate --name my-kerndx-project

You should see the folder created, with sfdx-project.json inside it. Move into it before you run anything else:

shell
cd my-kerndx-project

Check you are ready ​

Every Fast Start sends you here before its first step. Run this check once, so a guide's first step is never the first time you find a problem: first the terminal line under "Use Command Prompt on Windows" above, then these three.

In the terminal:

shell
sf version
shell
sf org display -o YourOrgAlias
shell
sf package installed list -o YourOrgAlias

You should see a version line that starts with @salesforce/cli/, then a table of your org's details with your alias in its Alias row, then a table of installed packages with a row whose Package Name is Kern and whose Namespace is kern. If any of the three does not, "If something went wrong" below has the answer.

If something went wrong ​

Each entry says what you saw, why it happened, and what to do. The guides' own Common Issues sections send you here for anything about your computer rather than about the guide.

VS Code opened PowerShell, not Command Prompt ​

The line you type on starts with the letters PS, short for PowerShell, and the ver check answers with this:

text
ver : The term 'ver' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

(PowerShell 7 words it "not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program".) VS Code opens PowerShell unless told otherwise. Some commands on this site fail there, and on a fresh machine npm does not run at all (the next entry). Switch this terminal, or make Command Prompt the default for good, as "In Visual Studio Code" above describes; in a JetBrains IDE set the shell path as "In a JetBrains IDE" describes. Then run the guide's step again.

npm says running scripts is disabled on this system ​

text
npm : File C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on
this system. For more information, see about_Execution_Policies at https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170.

You are in PowerShell on a machine whose policy blocks scripts, and on Windows npm itself is a script. Do not change the policy. Open Command Prompt and run the same line there; it runs unchanged.

sf is not recognized, or command not found ​

The CLI is not installed, or the terminal was open before the install finished and does not know about it yet. Close every terminal window, open a new one, and try again:

shell
sf version

Still nothing? Install the CLI from its install page and open a new terminal afterwards.

The CLI has no login for your alias ​

The CLI has no login under the alias the command named. List what it knows:

shell
sf org list

If your org is missing, log in again with the line under "Log in to your org", using the same alias the guide's commands use.

Nothing to deploy, or a stray force-app folder appeared ​

The command ran below or outside your project's top folder, so the new files did not land in the project's force-app folder. Delete the stray force-app folder, move to the folder that holds sfdx-project.json, and start the step again.

The deploy reports a conflict ​

Your org tracks source changes and something in it differs from your project's copy, usually because the same class was edited in the org. Look at what the message names; when your project's copy is the one you want, deploy it over the org's:

shell
sf project deploy start -o YourOrgAlias -m "ApexClass:YourClassName" --ignore-conflicts

Node is the wrong version ​

A script that comes with KernDX refused to run, or npm ci complained about the Node version. What to do depends on where you are.

In a checkout of the framework, the project's .nvmrc names the version it needs. Switch to that version:

Windows (Command Prompt)

bat
nvm use 22.22.3

macOS or Linux

bash
nvm use

You should see the version confirmed. No nvm on your machine? Install the Node version the file names from Node's download page.

In a project of your own (one where you installed the CI tooling, or one you generated), there is no .nvmrc. Switch to Node 22, the version "What you need" names:

shell
nvm use 22.22.3

You should see the version confirmed. If nvm says that version is not installed, install it with nvm first, then run this step again. No nvm on your machine? Install that version from Node's download page.

Still stuck? Tell us which step and what you saw.