nRF Connect SDK Essential

nRF Connect SDK is a scalable and unified software development kit for building products based on all our nRF54, nRF53, nRF52, nRF70 and nRF91 Series wireless devices. It offers developers an extensible framework for building size-optimized software for memory-constrained devices as well as powerful and complex software for more advanced devices and applications. It integrates the Zephyr RTOS and a wide range of samples, application protocols, protocol stacks, libraries and hardware drivers.

For developing Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth mesh, Thread, Zigbee and Matter products, the nRF Connect SDK contains all needed software, including protocol stacks. ANT support is available for the nRF5340 SoC. For developing cellular IoT products it contains everything except the LTE modem firmware that must be downloaded separately from the nRF9160 SiP product page. See the cellular IoT software for more details.

nRF Connect SDK also offers an unique integration of HomeKit Accessory Development Kit for developing products using both HomeKit over Thread and HomeKit over Bluetooth Low Energy. It is a highly optimized solution that enables battery-powered products with both the HomeKit Accessory Protocol (HAP) and application firmware running on a single chip. MFi licensees can get access to the HomeKit repository by contacting us via Nordic DevZone private ticket. 

nRF Connect SDK offers a single code base for all our devices and software components. It simplifies porting modules, libraries and drivers from one application to another, thus reducing development time. By enabling developers to pick and choose the essential software components for their application, high memory efficiency is guaranteed.

nRF Connect SDK is publicly hosted on GitHub, offers source code management with Git and has free nRF Connect for VS Code IDE support. nRF Connect SDK is IDE agnostic, which means you can use your own IDE if you prefer. Nordic runs continuous integration tests on the nRF Connect SDK code to ensure robust and secure production quality code.