# Installing from source

Installation from the GitHub repository is useful when developing plugins and components.

To do this enter the following commands in a terminal window:

    # Copy the files to your device
    git clone https://github.com/SignalK/signalk-server.git

    # change to the folder containing the downloaded files
    cd signalk-server

    # install the dependencies
    npm install

    # build all packages in the repository
    npm run build:all

To start Signal K Server with a sample configuration file and some sample data, enter the following into a terminal: To use NMEA0183 sample data:

    bin/nmea-from-file

To use NMEA2000 sample data:

    bin/n2k-from-file

The server will start playing back data from the specified sample file that can be viewed using the Data Browser in the Admin UI (`http://localhost:3000`) or via REST API / websocket connection.