+++
title = "Operator Setup"
date = '2025-06-09'
draft = false
+++

The Wild Cloud software is Open Source and free. All you need to do is download it onto your operator machine, install some other programs we require, and then run the setup script. The setup script walks you through the process of installing your DNS machine, your control nodes, your worker nodes, and then any software you want to run on your cloud.

(This page assumes you already have your hardware ready to set up. If you don't, read [Setting Up Your Hardware](../hardware/)).


## Download the Wild Cloud software onto your operator machine


Your operator machine should be a Debian-based Linux machine (e.g. Debian or Ubuntu) on your LAN. It's helpful if it has a nice big hard drive you can use for backing up your cloud data.

{{< gitea server="https://git.civilsociety.dev" repo="CSTF/wild-cloud" showThumbnail=true >}}

```bash
git clone https://git.civilsociety.dev/CSTF/wild-cloud.git
```

Add the `bin` directory to your path.
```bash
export PATH=$PATH:~/wild-cloud/bin
```

Install dependencies:

```bash
scripts/setup-utils.sh
```
