hen 0.20.2

---
title: Getting Started
description: Choose the fastest path to your first successful Hen workflow.
---

Hen installs through Cargo, so start by installing Rust if you do not already have it:

[Install Rust](https://rust-lang.org/tools/install/)

Install Hen with Cargo:

```bash
cargo install hen
```

## Choose your starting path

| If you want to... | Read this |
| --- | --- |
| Run your first collection interactively | [Interactive CLI](./interactive-cli.md) |
| Generate a starter collection from OpenAPI | [CLI Guide: OpenAPI Import](../cli/index.md#openapi-import) |
| Run collections in automation or CI | [CI and Automation](./ci-and-automation.md) |
| Learn the core authoring syntax quickly | [Syntax Cheatsheet](./syntax-cheatsheet.md) |
| Understand what Hen does when a collection runs | [Collection and Request Lifecycle](./collection-and-request-lifecycle.md) |
| Author `.hen` files in VS Code | [Use Hen in VS Code](../editor-support.md) |
| Look up commands and flags | [CLI Reference](../cli/reference.md) |

## The four commands to know first

1. `hen verify` checks structure without executing requests.
2. `hen run` executes one request or a whole collection.
3. `hen inspect` emits machine-readable authoring data for editor tooling.
4. `hen import` lowers an OpenAPI 3.x spec into an editable `.hen` collection.