qmk_firmware/docs

Quantum Mechanical Keyboard Firmware

Getting started

• What is QMK Firmware?
• How to get it
• How to compile
• How to customize

What is QMK Firmware? {#what-is-qmk-firmware}

QMK (Quantum Mechanical Keyboard) is an open source community that maintains QMK Firmware, QMK Flasher, qmk.fm, and these docs. QMK Firmware is a keyboard firmware based on the tmk_keyboard with some useful features for Atmel AVR controllers, and more specifically, the OLKB product line, the ErgoDox EZ keyboard, and the Clueboard product line. It has also been ported to ARM chips using ChibiOS. You can use it to power your own hand-wired or custom keyboard PCB.

How to get it {#how-to-get-it}

If you plan on contributing a keymap, keyboard, or features to QMK, the easiest thing to do is fork the repo through Github, and clone your repo locally to make your changes, push them, then open a Pull Request from your fork.

Otherwise, you can either download it directly (zip, tar), or clone it via git (git@github.com:qmk/qmk_firmware.git), or https (https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware.git).

How to compile {#how-to-compile}

Before you are able to compile, you'll need to install an environment for AVR or/and ARM development. Once that is complete, you'll use the make command to build a keyboard and keymap with the following notation:

make planck-rev4-default

This would build the rev4 revision of the planck with the default keymap. Not all keyboards have revisions (also called subprojects), in which case, it can be omitted:

make preonic-default

How to customize {#how-to-customize}

QMK has lots of features to explore, and a good deal of reference documentation to dig through. Most features are taken advantage of by modifying your keymap, and changing the keycodes.