Quickstart guide for Mac & Linux using Navigator#

This quickstart guide is intended to help you create an Anaconda account, obtain conda software, and configure it to access your instance of Anaconda while mainly using Anaconda Navigator. If you prefer to use the command line interface (CLI), see the Quickstart guide for Mac & Linux using the CLI to perform these same configurations.

Creating an account#

Go to https://anaconda.cloud/sign-up.

From here you have several options for account registration:

  • Authenticate with a GitHub, Gmail, or Microsoft account

  • Sign up manually with an email and password

Signing up manually#

  1. Click the Sign up link at the bottom of the sign in dialog.

  2. Enter your email address and password.

  3. Check your email for the email verification code.

  4. Enter the verification code and click Submit.

Creating a profile#

Fill out the personal information form, check the box if you would like to receive marketing promotions or newsletters, then click Explore Anaconda Cloud.

You will receive a verification email once you have created your profile.

Purchasing a subscription to Anaconda#

  1. Sign in to your Anaconda Cloud account.

  2. Open the user dropdown menu and select Subscriptions.

  3. Select Change Plan.

  4. Choose a monthly or yearly payment plan, then click Subscribe beneath your preferred tier.

  5. Enter your organization’s information and click Continue to payment.

  6. Enter your billing information and click Subscribe.

  7. You will receive two emails. One is an invoice for your subscription purchase. The other is a welcome email for the organization you created.

You can now invite members and manage your organization.

Installing conda software#

If you already have Anaconda Distribution installed, you’re all set to move forward!

If you have not installed Anaconda Distribution or Miniconda yet, download either Anaconda Distribution or Miniconda and install it on your system before proceeding with configuration.

Not sure whether you need Anaconda Distribution or Miniconda? Refer to the Downloading conda topic for guidance.

If you choose to download Miniconda, you need to install Anaconda Navigator separately. To install Anaconda Navigator using Miniconda:

  1. Open a terminal.

  2. Install Anaconda Navigator by running the following command:

    conda install anaconda-navigator

Authenticating to Anaconda#

Anaconda uses private tokens to authenticate users to their organizations. You must be assigned a seat within an organization to activate a token. Once you’re assigned a seat, you can generate a private token for yourself at any time.

  1. Go to your organization’s page.

  2. Select Token Access from the left-hand navigation.

  3. Select Activate token if it is the first time you are receiving a token, or Reissue token if you are obtaining a new token. An automated email containing a private token will be delivered to the address associated with your Anaconda account.

  4. Launch Anaconda Navigator.

  5. Select Connect, then Sign in to Anaconda Professional using the private token you received in your email.

Note

Both the Pro and Business tiers share a repository of curated packages. Therefore, signing into Anaconda Professional gives you access to the Business channels you need, as long as you have the correct access token.

Important information about the .condarc file#

The .condarc file is a configuration file that tells conda where to look for packages. Here is an example of what your .condarc file might look like:

channels:
  - https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/<ORG_ID>/<CHANNEL_NAME>
  - defaults
add_anaconda_token: true
restore_free_channel: false
default_channels:
  - https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/main
  - https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/r
  - https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/msys2

Conda searches for requested packages in the channel listed at the top of the channels: list first. If that channel contains the requested package, it is downloaded from that channel.

If the requested package is not located in that channel, conda will search for the package in the next entry of the channels: list.

When conda reaches the defaults entry of the channels: list, it searches the channels listed under the default_channels: list, in the same descending order.

In this example, conda will look for a requested package in your organization’s channel first, then will look in the default channels in listed order, starting with https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/main, then https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/r, and finally, in https://repo.anaconda.cloud/repo/msys2.

For more information regarding the .condarc file, see the official conda documentation.

Viewing your .condarc file#

To view your .condarc file in Anaconda Navigator, navigate to Preferences from the menu bar and select Configure Conda.

Note

You can edit the .condarc file directly from this view.

Adding an organization channel to your .condarc file#

  1. Select Channels, then click Add….

  2. Enter the path to your organization’s channel using the following format:

    # Replace <TOKEN> with your Anaconda token
# Replace <ORG_ID> with your organization's ID (not the org name)
# Replace <CHANNEL> with your channel's name
https://repo.anaconda.cloud/t/<TOKEN>/repo/<ORG_ID>/<CHANNEL>

    Caution

    The channel address must be exact. Watch out for unwanted trailing spaces if cutting/pasting.

  3. Press return to add the channel.

  4. Click Update channels to instruct navigator to update the channels: list in your .condarc file.

Note

Your token information will be hidden once the channel is added.

Adding conda-forge as a channel#

If you need to install packages from the conda-forge repository:

  1. Select Channels, then click Add….

  2. Enter conda-forge as your channel.

  3. Press return to add the channel.

  4. Click Update channels to instruct navigator to update the channels: list in your .condarc file.

Using Anaconda behind a firewall or proxy (Optional)#

Some companies have security policies that prevent communications on their network with external servers, like Anaconda. Under these circumstances, you’ll need to connect to your company’s firewall/proxy server in order to download packages successfully.

To connect to a firewall/proxy server, you’ll need to include a proxy_servers: section in the .condarc file that contains the URL to the proxy server. This entry must also contain a username and password for logging in to the proxy server. Speak with your IT Administrator if you do not have this information.

There are no commands to include this portion of the .condarc file, so you need to manually include the following lines:

# Replace <USERNAME> with the username for your proxy server
# Replace <PASSWORD> with the password for your proxy server
# Replace <URL> with the URL to your proxy server
proxy_servers:
 http: http://<USERNAME>:<PASSWORD>@<URL>:8080
 https: https://<USERNAME>:<PASSWORD>@<URL>:8443

You’ll also need to work with your IT team to allowlist connections to the main package repositories once you’ve configured your connection to the firewall/proxy server. The main package repositories are:

  • https://anaconda.org

  • https://repo.anaconda.com

  • https://repo.anaconda.cloud

In some situations, it is necessary to export the HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY environment variables to utilize the proxy server. To export your environment variables, open a terminal and run the following commands:

# Replace <USERNAME> with the username for your proxy server
# Replace <PASSWORD> with the password for your proxy server
# Replace <URL> with the URL to your proxy server
export HTTP_PROXY=http://<USERNAME>:<PASSWORD>@<URL>:8080
export HTTPS_PROXY=https://<USERNAME>:<PASSWORD>@<URL>:8443

Verifying your configurations#

To test your configurations and verify that conda downloads packages from the desired channel, complete the following procedure:

  1. Go to Environments in the left-hand navigation, then select Create at the bottom of the window.

  2. Enter a name for your environment and select a version of Python (3.10 is preferred) from the dropdown menu, then click Create.

  3. Change the package selector to Not installed. This will show you packages that are available from your channel but are not installed on your machine.

  4. If you know the name of the package you need, you can enter it in the search bar to locate the package. Select a package to download and click Apply.

  5. Click Apply to install the selected packages (and their dependencies).

Note

The Channel column will display your organization’s channel path, if correctly configured.