Getting Started with Wendy Lite

Wendy Lite is a runtime for Espressif ESP32 microcontrollers. It runs on your device, handles its connectivity, and lets you build, deploy and run your own native applications on it — all from a single command-line tool, the Wendy CLI.

This guide takes the shortest path from nothing to a running application: three steps, ending with an existing example built and deployed on your device.

Step 1 — Install the tools

You need two tools.

Wendy CLI — your entry point to the device: installs Wendy Lite, configures it, builds and deploys applications. Run this command to install Wendy CLI:

curl -fsSL https://install.wendy.dev/cli.sh | bash

or follow the CLI installation guide.

EIM, the ESP-IDF Installation Manager — Espressif's tool for managing the ESP-IDF development environment. Follow Espressif's installation instructions.

You never have to select a toolchain by hand: the Wendy CLI picks the right one for you via EIM.

Step 2 — Install Wendy Lite on your device

Connect your device over USB and run:

wendy install

This flashes Wendy Lite onto the device. When prompted, select the board variant labeled native app support; variants without that label cannot run the native blink-rgb-led example. You only do this once per device.

During installation, wendy install also prompts you to configure the Wi-Fi connection and enroll the device in Wendy Cloud — feel free to skip these for now.

Step 3 — Build and deploy an application

Rather than writing an application from scratch, start from an existing one. blink-rgb-led is the simplest example: it blinks the onboard RGB LED.

Scaffold the project and enter its directory:

mkdir blink-rgb-led
cd blink-rgb-led
wendy init --template blink-rgb-led

Then build, deploy and run it:

wendy run

That is the whole cycle. wendy run compiles the project in the current directory, pushes the application to the device, and starts it. The onboard LED should start blinking.

blink-rgb-led runs on these development kits:

• ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1
• ESP32-C6-DevKitC-1
• ESP32-C6-DevKitM-1
• ESP32-C61-DevKitC-1

More native examples are in the wendy-lite-native-apps repository.

Next steps

You now have a working setup and a project you can edit. Change something in blink-rgb-led/main/main.c, run wendy run again, and watch it land on the device.

When you want to write your own application, see Native Apps for Wendy Lite — it covers how a Wendy Lite project is put together, how to integrate the wendy_core component, and which parts of the hardware the system owns.