---
title: "Installing Drupal Starter Kits through the local system"
date: "2024-11-14T09:51:08+00:00"
summary: "Learn how to install Drupal Starter Kits locally with step-by-step instructions for Enterprise, Community, and Headless options."
image:
type: "page"
url: "/drupal-starter-kits/installing-drupal-starter-kits-through-local-system"
id: "38c3c1b8-ab25-460e-909b-fb6321d938cb"
---

Rebranding notice!

Acquia announces rebranding of its “Acquia CMS” offering, which includes a collection of Drupal modules. “Acquia CMS” is now referred to as “Drupal Starter Kits”.

Table of contents will be added

You can use your local system to create an Acquia-recommended Drupal project or add a starter kit to your existing Drupal project.

*   Create an Acquia-recommended Drupal project by running the following command:
    
        composer create-project acquia/drupal-recommended-project project && cd project
    
    ![cms_setting-up-acquia-recommended-project-local.png](https://acquia.widen.net/content/0d7424ac-fe6f-4c3b-8a79-7c64ceec5261/web/cms_setting-up-acquia-recommended-project-local.png)
    
    By default, the starter kit is already available in this project.
    
*   Add a starter kit to your existing Drupal project by running the following command:
    
        composer require acquia/acquia-cms-starterkit
    

After you create an Acquia-recommended Drupal project or add a starter kit to an existing Drupal project, you can install Drupal Starter Kits by leveraging one of the available starter kits. Acquia recommends that you use the Drupal Starter Kits wizard for downloading and building Drupal sites with Drupal Starter Kits modules. With this wizard, you can set up your Drupal site using one of the three starter kits. You can install Drupal Starter Kits by using one of the following starter kits:

*   [Enterprise low-code starter kit](/drupal-starter-kits/enterprise-low-code-starter-kit "Enterprise low-code starter kit")
*   [Community starter kit](/drupal-starter-kits/community-starter-kit "Community starter kit")
*   [Headless starter kit](/drupal-starter-kits/headless-starter-kit "Headless starter kit")

Enterprise low-code starter kit
-------------------------------

This starter kit installs the following to your Drupal site:

*   Drupal Starter Kits with Site Studio
*   A UIKit

It provides drag-and-drop content authoring and low-code site building. An optional add-on content model is available during the installation process. For more information, see [Enterprise low-code starter kit](/drupal-starter-kits/enterprise-low-code-starter-kit "Enterprise low-code starter kit").

To install Drupal Starter Kits through the Enterprise low-code starter kit:

1.  Access your Drupal project and run the following command:
    
        ./vendor/bin/acms acms:install
        
    
    Note
    
    Existing users who want to prevent rebuilding Composer dependencies repeatedly can leverage separate build and install commands. For more information, see [Using separate build and install commands](/drupal-starter-kits/using-separate-build-and-install-commands "Using separate build and install commands").
    
2.  In **Please choose bundle from one of the above use case**, select **acquia\_cms\_enterprise\_low\_code** and press **Enter**.
    
    For selection, you can use the Up and Down arrow keys.
    
    Note
    
    The default value for this query is `acquia_cms_enterprise_low_code`. Therefore, the system considers the value to be `acquia_cms_enterprise_low_code` even if you do not specify any value.
    
3.  In **Do you want to enable demo content?**, type **yes** to see the operation of Drupal Starter Kits with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, type the default value, **no**.
    *   If you type **no**:
        1.  In **Do you want to enable the content model?**, type **yes** or **no** and press **Enter**.
            
            This question includes all [content types](/node/55916/#acms-content-types) in the site.
            
4.  In **Would you like to enable the Acquia DAM modules?**, type **yes** to leverage Acquia DAM modules. Otherwise, type **no**.
5.  In **Would you like to add GDPR functionality to the site?**, type **yes** to leverage community-contributed GDPR modules with Drupal Starter Kits. Otherwise, type **no**. For more information about these modules, see [General Data Protection Regulation](https://www.drupal.org/project/gdpr) and [EU Cookie Compliance (GDPR Compliance)](https://www.drupal.org/project/eu_cookie_compliance).
6.  In **Please provide the Google Maps API Key**, type the Google Maps API key and press **Enter**.
    
    The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have already configured the environment variable with the `export GMAPS_KEY="<your_key>"` command. Also, you can skip this step if you do not have the key.
    
7.  In **Please provide the Site Studio API Key**, type the Site Studio API key and press **Enter**.
    
    The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have already configured the environment variable with the `export SITESTUDIO_API_KEY="<your_key>"` command. Also, you can skip this step if you do not have the key.
    
8.  In **Please provide the Site Studio Organization Key**, type the Site Studio Organization key and press **Enter**.
    
    The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have already configured the environment variable with the `export SITESTUDIO_ORG_KEY="<your_key>"` command. Also, you can skip this step if you do not have the key.
    
9.  Specify the database information, such as name, driver, username, password, host, and port.
    
    Note
    
    To prevent failed installation, ensure that you:
    
    *   Run a MySQL server on the system or use the correct host name or port number when trying to connect to the server.
    *   Check that the TCP/IP port you are using is not blocked by a firewall or port blocking service.
    *   Check that the database server is running.
    *   Check that the database exists or the database users have sufficient privileges to create the database.
    *   Enter the correct database name, username, password, hostname, and port.
    
10.  Continue the installation process until you get the confirmation message.
11.  If you are an existing Acquia customer who does not use the [Site Studio Configuration Management](https://www.drupal.org/project/sitestudio_config_management#:~:text=The%20Site%20Studio%20provides%20a,recommendation%20can%20be%20seen%20here.) module, do the following steps:
     1.  _(Optional)_ If you are already using the [blt-site-studio](https://github.com/davidtrainer/blt-site-studio) plugin, remove it from your codebase by running the following command:
         
             composer remove acquia/blt-site-studio
             
         
         1.  Remove the following lines from the `blt/blt.yml` file:
             
                 site-studio:
                   rebuild: true
                   package-import: true
                   cohesion-import: true
                 
             
         
         Note
         
         If you do not leverage the [blt-site-studio](https://github.com/davidtrainer/blt-site-studio) plugin but use custom scripts instead, ensure that you remove such references from your codebase.
         
     2.  Add the [Site Studio Configuration Management](https://www.drupal.org/project/sitestudio_config_management#:~:text=The%20Site%20Studio%20provides%20a,recommendation%20can%20be%20seen%20here.) module to your codebase by running the following command:
         
             composer require drupal/sitestudio_config_management
             
         
     3.  Enable the module by running the following command:
         
             ./vendor/bin/drush en sitestudio_config_management -y
             
         
     4.  _(Optional)_ Add the following lines to the `settings.php` file:
         
             $settings['config_sync_directory'] = '../config/default/sync';
             $settings['site_studio_sync'] = '../config/default/site_studio';
             
         
         Note
         
         *   If your `settings.php` file already includes the paths for the `config_sync_directory` and `site_studio_sync` parameters, you can skip this step.
         *   If your Drupal project has the [Drupal Recommended Settings](https://github.com/acquia/drupal-recommended-settings) plugin pre-installed, you can skip this step as the system automatically updates the configuration properties in the `settings.php` file. For more information, see [Using the Drupal Recommended Settings plugin](/drupal-starter-kits/using-drupal-recommended-settings-plugin "Using the Drupal Recommended Settings plugin").
         
     5.  Verify the configuration import and export commands by running the following commands:
         
             ./vendor/bin/drush cex
             ./vendor/bin/drush cim
             
         
         These commands must automatically export or import Site Studio configurations along with Drupal configurations based on the paths specified in your settings.php file.
         

Important

Currently, the starter kit wizard uses `drush site:install` and drops the database of any existing site. Therefore, you cannot use starter kits after installation.

After you install Drupal Starter Kits, you can [develop your Drupal site](/node/55895/#develop-acquia-cms) and [deploy your changes to Cloud Next](/node/55895/#deploy-cloud-next).

Community starter kit
---------------------

This starter kit installs Drupal Starter Kits to your Drupal site. An optional add-on content model is available during the installation process. For more information, see [Community starter kit](/drupal-starter-kits/community-starter-kit "Community starter kit").

To install Drupal Starter Kits through the Community starter kit:

1.  Access your Drupal project and run the following command:
    
        ./vendor/bin/acms acms:install
        
    
    Note
    
    Existing users who want to prevent rebuilding Composer dependencies repeatedly can leverage separate build and install commands. For more information, see [Using separate build and install commands](/drupal-starter-kits/using-separate-build-and-install-commands "Using separate build and install commands").
    
2.  In **Please choose bundle from one of the above use case**, select **acquia\_cms\_community** and press **Enter**.
    
    For selection, you can use the Up and Down arrow keys.
    
3.  In **Do you want to enable demo content?**, type **yes** to see the operation of Drupal Starter Kits with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, type the default value, **no**.
    *   If you type **no**:
        1.  In **Do you want to enable the content model?**, type **yes** or **no** and press **Enter**.
            
            This question includes all [content types](/node/55916/#acms-content-types) in the site.
            
4.  In **Would you like to enable the Acquia DAM modules?**, type **yes** to leverage Acquia DAM modules. Otherwise, type **no**.
5.  In **Would you like to add GDPR functionality to the site?**, type **yes** to leverage community-contributed GDPR modules with Drupal Starter Kits. Otherwise, type **no**. For more information about these modules, see [General Data Protection Regulation](https://www.drupal.org/project/gdpr) and [EU Cookie Compliance (GDPR Compliance)](https://www.drupal.org/project/eu_cookie_compliance).
6.  In **Please provide the Google Maps API Key**, type the Google Maps API key and press **Enter**.
    
    The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have already configured the environment variable with the `export GMAPS_KEY="<your_key>"` command. Also, you can skip this step if you do not have the key.
    
7.  Specify the database information, such as name, driver, username, password, host, and port.
    
    Note
    
    To prevent failed installation, ensure that you:
    
    *   Run a MySQL server on the system or use the correct host name or port number when trying to connect to the server.
    *   Check that the TCP/IP port you are using is not blocked by a firewall or port blocking service.
    *   Check that the database server is running.
    *   Check that the database exists or the database users have sufficient privileges to create the database.
    *   Enter the correct database name, username, password, hostname, and port.
    
8.  Continue the installation process until you get the confirmation message.

Important

Currently, the starter kit wizard uses `drush site:install` and drops the database of any existing site. Therefore, you cannot use starter kits after installation.

After you install Drupal Starter Kits, you can [develop your Drupal site](/node/55895/#develop-acquia-cms) and [deploy your changes to Cloud Next](/node/55895/#deploy-cloud-next).

Headless starter kit
--------------------

This starter kit preconfigures Drupal for serving structured, RESTful content to third-party content displays, such as mobile apps, smart displays, and frontend driven websites. For more information, see [Headless starter kit](/drupal-starter-kits/headless-starter-kit "Headless starter kit").

To install Drupal Starter Kits through the Headless starter kit:

1.  Access your Drupal project and run the following command:
    
        ./vendor/bin/acms acms:install
        
    
    Note
    
    Existing users who want to prevent rebuilding Composer dependencies repeatedly can leverage separate build and install commands. For more information, see [Using separate build and install commands](/drupal-starter-kits/using-separate-build-and-install-commands "Using separate build and install commands").
    
2.  In **Please choose bundle from one of the above use case**, select **acquia\_cms\_headless** and press **Enter**.
    
    For selection, you can use the Up and Down arrow keys.
    
3.  In **Do you want to enable demo content?**, type **yes** to see the operation of Drupal Starter Kits with a content model with demo content and Site Studio components with demo content. Otherwise, type the default value, **no**.
    *   If you type **no**:
        1.  In **Do you want to enable the content model?**, type **yes** or **no** and press **Enter**.
            
            This question includes all [content types](/node/55916/#acms-content-types) in the site.
            
4.  In **Would you like to enable the Acquia DAM modules?**, type **yes** to leverage Acquia DAM modules. Otherwise, type **no**.
5.  In **Would you like to preconfigure a next.js site?**, type **yes** to configure a Next.js website. Otherwise, type **no**.
    *   If you type **yes**:
        1.  In **Please provide the Next.js site url**, type the Next.js site URL.
        2.  In **Please provide the Site Name**, type the name of the site.
        3.  In **Please provide the .env.local file path**, type the path of the .env.local file.
6.  In **Please provide the Google Maps API Key**, type the Google Maps API key and press **Enter**.
    
    The starter kit wizard does not prompt for the key if you have already configured the environment variable with the `export GMAPS_KEY="<your_key>"` command. Also, you can skip this step if you do not have the key.
    
7.  Specify the database information, such as name, driver, username, password, host, and port.
    
    Note
    
    To prevent failed installation, ensure that you:
    
    *   Run a MySQL server on the system or use the correct host name or port number when trying to connect to the server.
    *   Check that the TCP/IP port you are using is not blocked by a firewall or port blocking service.
    *   Check that the database server is running.
    *   Check that the database exists or the database users have sufficient privileges to create the database.
    *   Enter the correct database name, username, password, hostname, and port.
    
8.  Continue the installation process until you get the confirmation message.

Important

Currently, the starter kit wizard uses `drush site:install` and drops the database of any existing site. Therefore, you cannot use starter kits after installation.

After you install Drupal Starter Kits, you can [develop your Drupal site](/node/55895/#develop-acquia-cms) and [deploy your changes to Cloud Next](/node/55895/#deploy-cloud-next).