Bazel Quickstart

From zero to Bazel in 5 minutes

1. Install Aspect CLI

• On MacOS: brew install aspect-build/aspect/aspect
• Other platforms: https://github.com/aspect-build/aspect-cli#installation

2. Run bazel init

This creates Bazel's configuration files in the right spots with some initial content.

note

The init command is only available in Aspect CLI. Bazel's CLI has no equivalent.

3. Tell Bazel your dependency graph

In many cases the bulk of this work can be automated. For some languages, you can use aspect configure.

4. Run a build

Try bazel build //... to start with.

tip

We love to help beginners to have a working first-time user experience. Join Bazel Slack and join us in the #aspect-dev channel.