Quick Start #

Try Vue Online #

• To quickly get a taste of Vue, you can try it directly in our Playground.

• If you prefer a plain HTML setup without any build steps, you can use this JSFiddle as your starting point.

• If you are already familiar with Node.js and the concept of build tools, you can also try a complete build setup right within your browser on StackBlitz.

Creating a Vue Application #

In this section we will introduce how to scaffold a Vue Single Page Application on your local machine. The created project will be using a build setup based on Vite and allow us to use Vue Single-File Components (SFCs).

Make sure you have an up-to-date version of Node.js installed, then run the following command in your command line (without the > sign):

> npm init vue@latest

This command will install and execute create-vue, the official Vue project scaffolding tool. You will be presented with prompts for several optional features such as TypeScript and testing support:

✔ Project name: … <your-project-name>
✔ Add TypeScript? … No / Yes
✔ Add JSX Support? … No / Yes
✔ Add Vue Router for Single Page Application development? … No / Yes
✔ Add Pinia for state management? … No / Yes
✔ Add Vitest for Unit testing? … No / Yes
✔ Add Cypress for both Unit and End-to-End testing? … No / Yes
✔ Add ESLint for code quality? … No / Yes
✔ Add Prettier for code formatting? … No / Yes

Scaffolding project in ./<your-project-name>...
Done.

If you are unsure about an option, simply choose No by hitting enter for now. Once the project is created, follow the instructions to install dependencies and start the dev server:

> cd <your-project-name>
> npm install
> npm run dev

You should now have your first Vue project running! Note that the example components in the generated project are written using the Composition API and <script setup>, rather than the Options API. Here are some additional tips:

• The recommended IDE setup is Visual Studio Code + Volar extension. If you use other editors, check out the IDE support section.
• More tooling details, including integration with backend frameworks, are discussed in the Tooling Guide.
• To learn more about the underlying build tool Vite, check out the Vite docs.
• If you choose to use TypeScript, check out the TypeScript Usage Guide.

When you are ready to ship your app to production, run the following:

> npm run build

This will create a production-ready build of your app in the project's ./dist directory. Check out the Production Deployment Guide to learn more about shipping your app to production.

Next Steps >

Using Vue from CDN #

You can use Vue directly from a CDN via a script tag:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/vue@3/dist/vue.global.js"></script>

Here we are using unpkg, but you can also use any CDN that serves npm packages, for example jsdelivr or cdnjs. Of course, you can also download this file and serve it yourself.

When using Vue from a CDN, there is no "build step" involved. This makes the setup a lot simpler, and is suitable for enhancing static HTML or integrating with a backend framework. However, you won't be able to use the Single-File Component (SFC) syntax.

Using the Global Build #

The above link loads the global build of Vue, where all top-level APIs are exposed as properties on the global Vue object. Here is a full example using the global build:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/vue@3/dist/vue.global.js"></script>

<div id="app">{{ message }}</div>

<script>
  const { createApp } = Vue

  createApp({
    data() {
      return {
        message: 'Hello Vue!'
      }
    }
  }).mount('#app')
</script>

JSFiddle demo

Using the ES Module Build #

Throughout the rest of the documentation, we will be primarily using ES modules syntax. Most modern browsers now support ES modules natively, so we can use Vue from a CDN via native ES modules like this:

<div id="app">{{ message }}</div>

<script type="module">
  import { createApp } from 'https://unpkg.com/vue@3/dist/vue.esm-browser.js'

  createApp({
    data() {
      return {
        message: 'Hello Vue!'
      }
    }
  }).mount('#app')
</script>

Notice that we are using <script type="module">, and the imported CDN URL is pointing to the ES modules build of Vue instead.

JSFiddle demo

Enabling Import maps #

In the above example, we are importing from the full CDN URL, but in the rest of the documentation you will see code like this:

import { createApp } from 'vue'

We can teach the browser where to locate the vue import by using Import Maps:

<script type="importmap">
  {
    "imports": {
      "vue": "https://unpkg.com/vue@3/dist/vue.esm-browser.js"
    }
  }
</script>

<div id="app">{{ message }}</div>

<script type="module">
  import { createApp } from 'vue'

  createApp({
    data() {
      return {
        message: 'Hello Vue!'
      }
    }
  }).mount('#app')
</script>

JSFiddle demo

You can also add entries for other dependencies to the import map - but make sure they point to the ES modules version of the library you intend to use.

Splitting Up the Modules #

As we dive deeper into the guide, we may need to split our code into separate JavaScript files so that they are easier to manage. For example:

<!-- index.html -->
<script type="module">
  import { createApp } from 'vue'
  import MyComponent from './my-component.js'

  createApp(MyComponent).mount('#app')
</script>

// my-component.js
export default {
  data() {
    return { count: 0 }
  },
  template: `<div>count is {{ count }}</div>`
}

If you directly open the above index.html in your browser, you will find that it throws an error because ES modules cannot work over the file:// protocol. In order for this to work, you need to serve your index.html over the http:// protocol, with a local HTTP server.

To start a local HTTP server, first install Node.js and then run npx serve from the command line in the same directory where your HTML file is. You can also use any other HTTP server that can serve static files with the correct MIME types.

You may have noticed that the imported component's template is inlined as a JavaScript string. If you are using VSCode, you can install the es6-string-html extension and prefix the strings with a /*html*/ comment to get syntax highlighting for them.

Using Composition API without a Build Step #

Many of the examples for Composition API will be using the <script setup> syntax. If you intend to use Composition API without a build step, consult the usage of the setup() option.

Next Steps #

If you skipped the Introduction, we strongly recommend reading it before moving on to the rest of the documentation.