What you get

Once Flutter is installed and its bin is on PATH, you can run:

flutter doctor
dart --version

Flutter bundles Dart, so you usually don't install Dart separately.

macOS (Flutter manual install)

Create a place to keep SDKs (recommended):

mkdir -p ~/develop

Download the macOS Flutter zip (Apple Silicon vs Intel) from Flutter docs, then extract:

unzip ~/Downloads/flutter_macos_XXX-stable.zip -d ~/develop/

Add Flutter to your PATH (zsh default on modern macOS):

echo 'export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/develop/flutter/bin"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Verify:

flutter --version
dart --version
flutter doctor

Windows (Flutter manual install)

1. Create a folder (e.g. C:\Users\<you>\develop).
2. Extract the zip using PowerShell:

Expand-Archive -Path <sdk_zip_path> -Destination <destination_directory_path>

3. Add ...\flutter\bin to PATH (Flutter docs: "Add Flutter to your PATH").
4. Verify in a new terminal:

flutter --version
dart --version
flutter doctor

Linux (Flutter manual install)

Install prerequisites:

sudo apt-get update -y && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get install -y curl git unzip xz-utils zip libglu1-mesa

Download Flutter SDK bundle and extract (Linux uses tar -xf per docs).

Add Flutter bin to PATH (example):

echo 'export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/develop/flutter/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Verify:

flutter --version
dart --version
flutter doctor

---

2) Install Dart SDK standalone (no Flutter)

Official Dart docs recommend package managers and provide the exact commands below.

macOS (Homebrew)

brew tap dart-lang/dart
brew install dart
dart --version

Upgrade:

brew upgrade dart

Windows (Chocolatey)

Open PowerShell as Administrator, then:

choco install dart-sdk
dart --version

Upgrade:

choco upgrade dart-sdk

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian via apt repo)

First-time setup (key + repo):

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https

wget -qO- https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/dart.gpg

echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/dart.gpg arch=amd64] https://storage.googleapis.com/download.dartlang.org/linux/debian stable main' \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dart_stable.list

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install dart
dart --version

---

3) Install + use FVM (Flutter Version Management)

When to use

• Different Flutter versions per project
• Consistent builds across machines

FVM install options include a script or Homebrew.

Install FVM

macOS (Homebrew):

brew tap leoafarias/fvm
brew install fvm

Any OS (install script):

curl -fsSL https://fvm.app/install.sh | bash

Use FVM in a Flutter project

From your Flutter project folder:

fvm use stable --pin

This creates .fvm / .fvmrc and pins the version.

Run Flutter/Dart through FVM (recommended):

fvm flutter doctor
fvm dart --version

---

4) Install + use asdf (for Dart + Flutter)

When to use

• One version manager for everything
• .tool-versions per project

asdf’s official guide: install asdf → add plugin → install version → set version via .tool-versions.

A) asdf + Dart

asdf plugin add dart
asdf install dart latest
asdf set -u dart <version>

Verify:

dart --version
asdf where dart

VS Code tip: the Dart plugin’s repo explains you can locate SDK via asdf where dart and configure editor paths.

B) asdf + Flutter (includes both Flutter and Dart)

The community Flutter plugin includes Flutter and Dart. jq is required.

asdf plugin add flutter
asdf install flutter <version>
asdf set -u flutter <version>

VS Code troubleshooting (if it can’t find Flutter):

export FLUTTER_ROOT="$(asdf where flutter)"

---

5) Quick verification checklist (any setup)

Run these and make sure each works:

dart --version
flutter --version
flutter doctor

If something fails, it’s usually PATH. Flutter docs explicitly call out adding Flutter’s bin directory to PATH so both flutter and dart commands work.

If you tell me your OS (macOS Intel vs Apple Silicon, Windows, Ubuntu, etc.) and whether you’re doing Flutter or Dart-only, I’ll give you a “copy-paste exact” setup for your machine (including the correct shell file: .zshrc vs .bashrc, PATH, and verification).