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The quickest way to get started using Chef Infra is to install Chef Workstation and create your first Chef Infra Cookbook:

1. Install Chef Workstation: https://www.chef.io/downloads/tools/tools/workstation.

2. Generate a Chef Infra repository with an example cookbook:

   chef generate repo my_first_repo
   

   where my_first_repo is an arbitrary name for your Chef Infra repository.

3. Navigate to the cookbooks/example directory.

4. Update the cookbooks/example/recipes/default.rb recipe in the generated cookbook to contain:

   file "#{ENV['HOME']}/test.txt" do
     content 'This file was created by Chef Infra!'
   end
   

5. Run Chef Infra Client using the default.rb recipe:

   chef-client --local-mode --override-runlist example
   

This creates a file named test.txt at the home path on your computer. Open that file and it will say This file was created by Chef Infra!.

• Delete the file, run Chef Infra Client again, and Chef Infra will replace the file.
• Change the string in the file, run Chef Infra Client again, and Chef Infra will make the string in the file the same as the string in the recipe.
• Change the string in the recipe, run Chef Infra Client again, and Chef Infra will update that string to be the same as the one in the recipe.

There’s a lot more that Chef Infra can do, obviously, but that was super easy!

• See https://learn.chef.io/ for more detailed setup scenarios.
• Keep reading for more information about setting up a workstation, configuring Test Kitchen to run virtual environments, setting up a more detailed cookbook, resources, and more.