# Quickstart for engineers

Instrument your product with Amplitude, set up Autocapture, and launch your first feature flag as an engineer.

Source: https://amplitude.com/docs/get-started/quickstart-for-engineers

---

On this page

- [Add the Browser SDK](#add-the-browser-sdk)
- [Enable Autocapture](#enable-autocapture)
- [Launch a feature flag](#launch-a-feature-flag)
- [Next steps](#next-steps)

# Quickstart for engineers

For engineers implementing Amplitude15 minIntermediate

This quickstart is for engineers implementing Amplitude for the first time. Follow these steps to install the Browser SDK, verify that events flow into your project, and ship your first feature flag.

You'll set up

[Browser SDK 2](/docs/sdks/analytics/browser/browser-unified-sdk)

[Installed and sending events to your Amplitude project.](/docs/sdks/analytics/browser/browser-unified-sdk)

[Autocapture enabled](/docs/data/autocapture)

[Clicks, page views, and sessions tracked without manual event calls.](/docs/data/autocapture)

[A feature flag](/docs/feature-experiment/workflow/feature-flag-rollouts)

[A live flag you can roll out to a subset of users.](/docs/feature-experiment/workflow/feature-flag-rollouts)

Before you start

- An Amplitude account and a project API key — go to [Create a project](/docs/get-started/create-project) if you don't have one.

- Access to your product's codebase (front-end or back-end, depending on your stack).

- A Member, Developer, or Admin role in your Amplitude organization.

If your team is still deciding what to track, go to [Instrumentation prework](/docs/get-started/instrumentation-prework) first to align on a tracking plan before you write any code.

1. Install

   ## Add the Browser SDK

   The [Browser SDK](/docs/sdks/analytics/browser/browser-unified-sdk) is the fastest path to getting data into Amplitude. Add it to your site with a script tag or an npm package, then initialize it with your project API key.

   html

   ```
   <script type="text/javascript">
     !function(){"use strict";...}();
     amplitude.init('YOUR_API_KEY');
   </script>

   Amplitude provides a pre-configured snippet and an AI prompt in your project settings when you first create an account — go to your project settings to copy the snippet for your region.

   Once initialized, call `amplitude.track('Event Name', { property: 'value' })` to send your first custom event.

2. Capture

   ## Enable Autocapture

   [Autocapture](/docs/data/autocapture) tracks clicks, page views, sessions, form interactions, file downloads, and marketing attribution without any manual event calls. Enable it by passing `autocapture: true` during initialization:

   js

   amplitude.init('YOUR_API_KEY', { autocapture: true });

   Check your Amplitude project's *Live Events* view to confirm events are arriving. You don't need to add any additional tracking code for the behaviors Autocapture handles.

   Autocapture is best for capturing broad behavioral data. For business-critical actions — purchases, upgrades, key feature usage — add explicit `amplitude.track()` calls so those events carry the right properties.

3. Experiment

   ## Launch a feature flag

   [Feature Experiment](/docs/feature-experiment/experiment-quick-start) lets you roll out changes to a subset of users without a code deployment. Create a flag in the Amplitude UI, add the SDK to your codebase, and check the flag value at runtime:

   const variant = experiment.variant('my-flag');
   if (variant.value === 'treatment') {
     // show new feature
   }

   Go to [Feature flag rollouts](/docs/feature-experiment/workflow/feature-flag-rollouts) for a full walkthrough of targeting rules, gradual rollouts, and flag cleanup.

## Next steps

[❓](/docs/get-started/engineer-questions)

[Get answers about your implementation](/docs/get-started/engineer-questions)

[Common questions about identity, event batching, and data validation.](/docs/get-started/engineer-questions)

[🧪](/docs/feature-experiment/experiment-quick-start)

[Run an A/B test](/docs/feature-experiment/experiment-quick-start)

[Extend your feature flag into a full experiment with statistical analysis.](/docs/feature-experiment/experiment-quick-start)

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