Step 1: Get the Source

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Create a GitHub account and install Git

The Keyman repositories are stored on GitHub. If you don't already have one, you will need to create a GitHub account using your web browser.

Then, download and install Git onto your computer.

Fork the Keyboards repository

From a web browser, log into GitHub and fork the Keyman keyboards repository by visiting https://github.com/keymanapp/keyboards and clicking the Fork button on the top-right to create your own fork.

Create a local folder

From Explorer, create a parent folder to house your keyboard development. For this guide, I use

c:\projects\

but you can use any folder.

Clone the Keyboards-Starter repository

Once you have installed Git, do a shallow clone of the keyboards-starter repository onto your computer. This keyboards-starter repository doesn't contain keyboards, but includes the tools you'll need in order to upload a keyboard layout to us.

From a command prompt, run the following steps:

cd /c/projects
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/keymanapp/keyboards-starter.git

When the clone is complete, your copy of the keyboards-starter repository will be on your computer at

c:\projects\keyboards-starter

Keep your local Keyboards-Starter files in sync

Before starting work on a keyboard, you should keep your local keyboards-starter files in sync with our keyboards-starter repository. This keeps the command line keyboard compiler up to date. Get the latest changes from the master repository with these following commands:

Note: Stash or save any working files before changing branches.

cd /c/projects/keyboards-starter
git checkout master
git pull

Now let's check that we have the Keyman development tools for building a keyboard.

Step 2: Development Tools and Building a Keyboard