Software development kit

A software development kit (SDK or "devkit") is typically a set of software development tools that allows the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar development platform. To create applications, you have to download a specific software development kit. For example, the development of an Android app requires a SDK with Java, for iOS apps an iOS SDK with Swift, and for MS Windows the .NET Framework SDK with .NET. There are also SDKs that are installed in apps to provide analytics and data about activity. Prominent examples include Google and Facebook.

It may be something as simple as the implementation of one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) in the form of some libraries to interface to a particular programming language or to include sophisticated hardware that can communicate with a particular embedded system. Common tools include debugging facilities and other utilities, often presented in an integrated development environment (IDE). SDKs also frequently include sample code and supporting technical notes or other supporting documentation to help clarify points made by the primary reference material.