---
title: Getting Started
---

import RenderCodeBlock from '@theme/CodeBlock';
import CodeBlock from "@site/src/components/code_block.js";
import { rustVersion, actixWebMajorVersion } from "@site/vars";

## Installing Rust

If you don't have Rust yet, we recommend you use `rustup` to manage your Rust installation. The [official rust guide][rustguide] has a wonderful section on getting started.

<p>
Actix Web currently has a minimum supported Rust version (MSRV) of { rustVersion }. Running <code>rustup update</code> will ensure you have the latest and greatest Rust version available. As such, this guide assumes you are running Rust { rustVersion } or later.
</p>

## Hello, world!

Start by creating a new binary-based Cargo project and changing into the new directory:

```bash
cargo new hello-world
cd hello-world
```

Add `actix-web` as a dependency of your project by adding the following to your `Cargo.toml` file.


<!-- DEPENDENCY -->

<RenderCodeBlock className="language-toml">
{`[dependencies]
actix-web = "${actixWebMajorVersion}"`}
</RenderCodeBlock>

Request handlers use async functions that accept zero or more parameters. These parameters can be extracted from a request (see `FromRequest` trait) and returns a type that can be converted into an `HttpResponse` (see `Responder` trait):

Replace the contents of `src/main.rs` with the following:

<CodeBlock example="getting-started" section="handlers" />

Notice that some of these handlers have routing information attached directly using the built-in macros. These allow you to specify the method and path that the handler should respond to. You will see below how to register `manual_hello` (i.e. routes that do not use a routing macro).

Next, create an `App` instance and register the request handlers. Use `App::service` for the handlers using routing macros and `App::route` for manually routed handlers, declaring the path and method. Finally, the app is started inside an `HttpServer` which will serve incoming requests using your `App` as an "application factory".

Further append the following `main` function to `src/main.rs`:

<CodeBlock example="getting-started" section="main" />

That's it! Compile and run the program with `cargo run`. The `#[actix_web::main]` macro executes the async main function within the actix runtime. Now you can go to `http://127.0.0.1:8080/` or any of the other routes you defined to see the results.

<!-- LINKS -->

[rustguide]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch01-01-installation.html
[actix-web-codegen]: https://docs.rs/actix-web-codegen/