Ready to start building with Bigdata.com? This page will guide you through all the essential steps to set up your local environment, so you can hit the ground running with your projects. Here’s what you’ll accomplish on this page: ✅ Create a python virtual environment
✅ Install the Bigdata.com SDK bigdata-client
✅ Initialise environment variables
Let’s get your workspace ready for success!
It’s recommended to use python 3.11.

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Create a python virtual environment

Open the terminal and create a virtual environment with the following command: 
python3 -m venv bigdata_venv
Activate the virtual environment, every time you want to use it: 
source ./bigdata_venv/bin/activate

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Install the Bigdata.com SDK [bigdata-client]

Let’s install bigdata-client within the environment bigdata_venv. 
pip install bigdata-client

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Initialise environment variables

Specify your Bigdata.com credentials either with a .env file or by exporting the environment variables.
Create a .env file in the root of your project with the following content:
# Bigdata credentials or create an API Key in the Bigdata App > Settings
BIGDATA_USERNAME=<YOUR_USERNAME>
BIGDATA_PASSWORD=<YOUR_PASSWORD>

# Bigdata API key (Not supported for uploads service yet)
BIGDATA_API_KEY=<YOUR_API_KEY>

# Maximum number of parallel threads (optional) 10 by default
BIGDATA_MAX_PARALLEL_REQUESTS=50