Local development

Last updated: July 21, 2026

Relevant for: Developer

Developing on a NOVA cloud instance with Visual Studio Code, the Python SDK, and Rerun is a good starting point for building your first robotic programs. Working locally has the advantages that you can use the full power of your own computer, stay in your favorite IDE, keep everything on your company network, and keep working when you're offline.

Install the NOVA CLI.
Create a project from a template.
Run your first robot program in Visual Studio Code.

You do not need Docker or a container registry for this. That tooling only becomes relevant once you deploy your app to a NOVA instance, and you can add it at that point.

Prerequisites

You completed the Wandelbots NOVA quickstart guide and have a NOVA cloud instance running including a robot. The local development setup will interact with this instance.

Install the NOVA CLI

The NOVA CLI is a command-line tool for creating applications and deploying them to Wandelbots NOVA. It includes additional features that you can explore on GitHub or after installation by running nova --help.

macOS/Linux

Install the Wandelbots NOVA CLI tool using Homebrew.

brew install wandelbotsgmbh/wandelbots/nova

Enable autocompletion for zsh.

echo 'source <(nova completion zsh)' >> ~/.zshrc

To see all available autocompletion commands for other shell types, run:

nova completion --help

Windows

Find the latest binaries at https://github.com/wandelbotsgmbh/nova-cli/releases

Download the binary, rename it to nova, and place it inside C:\Program Files\NovaCLI (or any other folder of your choice).

Add the folder to your system PATH.

setx PATH "%PATH%;C:\Program Files\NovaCLI"

Restart your terminal to apply the changes.

Manual installation

Download the Wandelbots NOVA CLI tool and configure it in your local environment.
Rename the downloaded file to nova and make it executable. Grant the file execution permissions, as the program is not signed. In order to ensure a smooth process, add the Wandelbots NOVA CLI to your terminal’s path. The exact process depends on your operating system and terminal.

Create and run your first project

Now that the CLI is installed, create a project from the Python template and run it.

Create project with Python template

nova app create myapp

The CLI creates a standard Python project that uses uv for dependency management and FastAPI for the HTTP interface. Default FastAPI routes expose your robotics programs without any extra wiring, and you can extend them whenever you need to customize the API.

Info

Be aware that the standard project template used Typescript in previous releases. The previous command required an additional argument to specify that the python template was to be used.

nova app create "myapp" -g python_app

uv sync

Other helpful uv commands:

# Add a new dependency
uv add some-package
# Download robot models for local Rerun Viewer
uv run download-models

The template is optimized for GitHub Copilot and ships with prompts you can reuse:

local_setup checks local prerequisites and tooling.
new_program bootstraps robotics programs that follow the Python SDK patterns.
start_server starts the development server.
test_program runs a selected program.
deploy_app walks you through publishing to NOVA.
copilot-instructions.md documents the project structure and collaboration tips.

Check the official Visual Studio Code documentation to learn more about this feature.

Update .env file

When working with any project you created with NOVA CLI, you need to make sure the .env file is updated. The following information is needed in the .env file:

NOVA_API: this is your NOVA HOST. If you have an instance from our cloud, you should put xxxxx.instance.wandelbots.io
CELL_NAME: this is the name of your cell. By default, it named "cell".
NOVA_ACCESS_TOKEN: This is the access token you can get from our developer portal. Only set this if you are using an instance from the cloud.
LOG_LEVEL: The log level of your app. Defaults to info.
NATS_BROKER: Not part of the default .env.example. Add it only if you are using NOVA on an IPC or in a virtual machine, set up like this: ws://IP:80/api/nats

Run your first program in Visual Studio Code

You can also run a robot program directly from your editor. The template ships a ready-made launch configuration for Visual Studio Code.

Open the project folder in Visual Studio Code.
Open your_nova_app/start_here.py.
Press the play button to run the program.

Start app

You can also start the app from the command line. This is less commonly needed for regular robot programs, but useful when you want to expose the app’s REST API on localhost.

uv run python -m myapp

Then, open the browser at http://localhost:3000 and see the API.

As you can see you got a couple of APIs out of the box. These APIs are integrated to our system and when you write robotic programs they will automatically be integrated with these APIs.

If you want to extend the project no worries. We only register some routes to your API, you still have the full flexibility to implement new APIs and own the FastAPI object.

That is all you need to develop and test robot programs locally.

Next steps

Your programs currently run on your machine. To make your app permanently available on the NOVA instance, continue with deploying your app.