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Getting started

Welcome to The National Archives. This guide will hopefully help you, as a new engineer, get started.

Tools

Git

Teams use Git as a distributed VCS. You can interact with Git via the CLI or using any of several GUI clients, some of which are available via Self Service.

IDE

In order to write code, you need an IDE. There are a few free IDEs available:

Terminal

All operating systems should come with a CLI. A terminal will allow you to run commands and build software without an GUI.

Windows has PowerShell, Mac OS has Terminal and Linux usually has a CLI such as Ubuntu's command line.

Some IDEs have terminal built in which leverage the CLI of the OS.

Terraform

Terraform is an infrastructure as code tool that lets you build, change, and version resources safely and efficiently.

AWS CLI

The AWS CLI is a unified tool to manage and control AWS services from the command line.

Services

GitHub

Our source code is stored on GitHub. You will need to set up a GitHub account in order to contribute to our projects.

Once you have an account, you need to be added to the National Archives GitHub organisation as well as one of the National Archives GitHub teams. Please ask your webmaster for access to this.

Read our GitHub guidelines for a better idea of how we use GitHub as well as our our version control standards.

Docker

Creating a Docker account will give you a higher download limit. For anonymous users, the rate limit is set to 100 pulls per 6 hours per IP address but for authenticated users, it's 200 pulls per 6 hour period.

⚠️ If your project uses Docker and you want to use Docker Desktop, you need to obtain a licence.

Make sure that you download the correct version of Docker. If you have a newer Apple Mac then you may need the version of Docker that is specific to the Apple M-series chips.

We have a set way of working and standards for our containers to ensure security and consistency.

GovWifi

When working in the office, you can use the corporate wifi. Learn how to connect a device to GovWifi.

Communication

Cross-government Slack

https://x-govuk.github.io/posts/how-to-use-cross-government-slack/