# Arweave AO Bootcamp 2/8 Setup

By [kyohei_nft(へいきょ)](https://paragraph.com/@kyohei-nft) · 2025-06-03

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What You'll Learn in This Chapter
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In this chapter, you will learn how to **prepare your local development environment for AO and Arweave**.Specifically, you will gain hands-on experience with starting up local nodes using Docker, downloading the AOS module, and generating the required wallets.

You will also understand the **roles and functions of each AO unit (MU, SU, CU)**.Grasping how these units collaborate to enable scalable distributed computing will provide a solid foundation for your further development.

Setup: Preparing Your Local Development Environment
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To start building with **AO** and **Arweave**, you'll first need to set up your local development environment. This tutorial assumes you have [NodeJS v22](https://nodejs.org/) and [Docker](https://docker.com/) installed.

Clone the localnet repository and start the services:

    git clone -b hotfix https://github.com/weavedb/ao-localnet.git
    cd ao-localnet/wallets && ./generateAll.sh
    cd ../ && sudo docker compose --profile explorer up
    

Once the Docker services are up, the following local nodes will be available:

*   **ArLocal**: [localhost:4000](http://localhost:4000) – Local Arweave gateway
    
*   **GraphQL**: [localhost:4000/graphql](http://localhost:4000/graphql) – GraphQL interface for Arweave
    
*   **Scar**: [localhost:4006](http://localhost:4006) – Local Arweave explorer
    
*   **MU (Messenger Unit)**: [localhost:4002](http://localhost:4002) – Handles messaging within AO
    
*   **SU (Scheduler Unit)**: [localhost:4003](http://localhost:4003) – Schedules process execution
    
*   **CU (Compute Unit)**: [localhost:4004](http://localhost:4004) – Executes computation workloads
    

Next, download the AOS Wasm module and generate the required wallets for interacting with AO units:

    nvm use 22
    cd ao-localnet/seed && ./download-aos-module.sh
    ./seed-for-aos.sh
    cd ../wallets && node printWalletAddresses.mjs
    

The last command will print all wallet addresses to the console. Make sure to **note down the address for the Scheduler Wallet**, as you’ll need it later in this tutorial.

What Does Each Unit Do?
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AO operates through a set of modular components called **units**. Each unit runs as an independent WASM process and handles a specific role in the system. Together, they enable scalable and composable distributed computation.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the core units:

1.  \*\*MU (Messenger Unit)\*\*Acts as the communication hub of AO. It handles the sending and receiving of messages between processes.
    
2.  \*\*SU (Scheduler Unit)\*\*Responsible for managing the scheduling and execution timing of processes. It ensures that tasks run in the correct order.
    
3.  \*\*CU (Compute Unit)\*\*Executes the actual logic and handlers. This is where the core computation takes place.
    

This modular structure is what makes AO so powerful — it allows you to build **custom, parallelized computing flows** tailored to your application's needs.

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*Originally published on [kyohei_nft(へいきょ)](https://paragraph.com/@kyohei-nft/arweave-ao-bootcamp-2-8-setup)*