# Setting up AWS Emulator
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Before you start, check the following. The prerequisites depend on how you run the emulator. You don’t need an AWS account to download or run the emulator.
+  **An AWS SDK or the AWS CLI** – You use the emulator through the AWS CLI or an AWS SDK, the same way that you use AWS.
+  **AI coding agent path** – An AI coding agent, such as Kiro, Cursor, or Claude Code, and the AWS CLI version 2.35.0 or later to install the `aws-emulator` skill. For more information, see [Getting started with an AI coding agent](getting-started-agent.md).
+  **Linux package path** – A 64-bit Linux system on x86\_64 or Arm (aarch64) with glibc 2.17 or later, such as Amazon Linux 2 or Amazon Linux 2023. It must be able to install RPM or Debian packages. To check your glibc version, run `ldd --version`. For more information, see [Getting started on Linux](getting-started-linux.md).
+  **Docker path** – Any system that runs Docker, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. On macOS and Windows, use this path. The emulator runs natively only on Linux. For more information, see [Getting started with Docker](getting-started-docker.md).
+  **Embedded mode** – A Rust toolchain with Cargo, a C compiler, and the AWS SDK for Rust. For more information, see [Getting started with embedded mode](getting-started-embedded.md).

## Review the license
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The source code is in the [AWS Emulator repository on GitHub](https://github.com/aws/aws-emulator). The source code is under the CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) public domain dedication, except the code in the `vendor/` directory, which is under the Apache License 2.0. For the full terms, see the license files in the repository.