Dev Environment Setup

Activity: Run the AEM SDK

To get the AEM SDK, go to https://experience.adobe.com/#/downloads/. (If your Adobe account has access)

Click “AEM as a Cloud Service”.

Browse for the version you want, for example AEM SDK v2026.8.27673.20260811T193135Z-260700.

Download the zip and extract it to a folder.

Inside the folder will be the SDK quickstart jar.

java -jar aem-sdk-quickstart-2026.8.27673.20260811T193135Z-260700.jar -r author,dev

On first run, you will be asked for an administrator password.

For the purposes of training, enter admin.

Then it will proceed to extract the local instance and initialize. When ready, a browser will open to the login page.
By default, the local service will run on http://localhost:4502

End of activity.

Activity: Maven Archetype Project Creation

Windows Command (Command Prompt, not PowerShell)

mvn -B org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-archetype-plugin:3.4.1:generate ^
 -D archetypeGroupId=com.adobe.aem ^
 -D archetypeArtifactId=aem-project-archetype ^
 -D archetypeVersion=57 ^
 -D appTitle="ERCOT Training" ^
 -D appId=ercot ^
 -D artifactId=ercot-training ^
 -D groupId=com.ercot.training ^
 -D package=com.ercot.training ^
 -D version=1.0-SNAPSHOT ^
 -D aemVersion=cloud ^
 -D sdkVersion=2026.8.27673.20260811T193135Z-260700 ^
 -D includeErrorHandler=y ^
 -D includeDispatcherConfig=n

MacOS / Linux command:

mvn -B org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-archetype-plugin:3.4.1:generate \
 -D archetypeGroupId=com.adobe.aem \
 -D archetypeArtifactId=aem-project-archetype \
 -D archetypeVersion=57 \
 -D appTitle="ERCOT Training" \
 -D appId=ercot \
 -D artifactId=ercot-training \
 -D groupId=com.ercot.training \
 -D package=com.ercot.training \
 -D version=1.0-SNAPSHOT \
 -D aemVersion=cloud \
 -D sdkVersion=2026.8.27673.20260811T193135Z-260700 \
 -D includeErrorHandler=y \
 -D includeDispatcherConfig=n

These will result in a project folder called ercot-training

End of activity.

Activity: Building the Maven Project

Make sure you are in the project directory. Run:

mvn clean install -PautoInstallSinglePackage

When finished, the project’s package will be built and then deployed to a locally running AEM instance running on port 4502, using admin for both the username and password.

End of activity.

Demo: Using a Rapid Development Environment

If using an RDE deployed through Cloud Manager, the Adobe CLI tool must be used to deploy the package.

Build the project with

mvn clean install

If the Adobe CLI is not installed, use:

npm install -g @adobe/aio-cli

Install the RDE support for the Adobe CLI:

aio plugins:install @adobe/aio-cli-plugin-aem-rde
aio plugins:update

Login with

aio login

Use --no-open if you need to use a different browser.

Configure RDE

aio aem:rde:setup

Then, packages can be deployed with

aio aem:rde:install name.of.single.package-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT.zip

adobe/aem-project-archetype: Maven template to create best-practice websites on AEM.

AEM as a Cloud Service Development Guidelines

Rapid Development Environments

https://developer.adobe.com/app-builder/docs/guides/runtime_guides/tools/cli-install

Deploying to AEM as a Cloud Service | Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service

Adobe Experience Manager releases roadmap | Adobe Experience Manager

Introduction to CI/CD Pipelines | Adobe Experience Manager