# Working from your IDE

Hot deployment from your editor - through the blueprint's directory mapping locally, through the plugin for remote servers.

Saving a Python file in your editor deploys it to a running Zato environment within a couple of seconds - this is [hot deployment](https://zato.io/docs/dev/hot-deploy.html), and there are two ways to connect your IDE to it, depending on where the server runs.

## Zato local install - the blueprint {#zato-local-install-the-blueprint}

This is the recommended way to work when the Zato container runs on the same machine as your editor, and there is nothing to install in the editor itself.

- Clone the [project blueprint](https://github.com/zatosource/zato-project-blueprint) and run its provisioning script, `myproject/impl/scripts/run-container.sh`
- Open the clone in your editor - VS Code, PyCharm, Cursor, Vim, anything that saves files
- Edit `myproject/impl/src/api/crm.py`, save it, and the server log confirms the deployment:

```text
Deployed 1 service from `crm.py` -> ['crm.customer.get']
```

The script mounts your project into the container and tells the server where to find it - these two lines are the whole integration:

```bash
echo Zato_Project_Root=$target/$env_name  >> $host_root_dir/config/auto-generated/env.ini
--mount type=bind,source=$zato_project_root,target=$target/$env_name,readonly
```

The server watches the mounted directory, so a save on the host is a deployment in the container. The directory on your host stays the single source of truth, in git, as the [deployment tutorial](https://zato.io/tutorials/devops/deployment.html) describes, and the [VS Code page](https://zato.io/docs/dev/ide/vscode.html) covers the editor setup step by step.

## Zato remote install - the plugin {#zato-remote-install-the-plugin}

When the server runs on another machine - a shared development server, a remote Linux instance while you work on a Mac - there is no directory to mount, so the [VS Code plugin](https://zato.io/docs/dev/ide/vscode.html) pushes the saved file to the server over HTTP instead.

The plugin authenticates with a default account, `ide_publisher`, which a new environment creates with a randomly assigned password that needs to be changed before the plugin can be used.

## Setting the ide\_publisher password for the remote install {#setting-the-ide_publisher-password-for-the-remote-install}

- To reset the `ide_publisher`'s password, first visit the **Security -> HTTP Basic Auth** section of Dashboard for your environment:

- Then, use **Change password** option for the pre-installed `ide_publisher` credential to set a new password that the plugin will authenticate with when it deploys services to Zato.

## Learn more {#learn-more}

- [Visual Studio Code](https://zato.io/docs/dev/ide/vscode.html) - Local install through the blueprint mount, remote install through the plugin
- [Development documentation](https://zato.io/docs/dev/) - The complete reference for writing services
- [In-depth API tutorial](https://zato.io/tutorials/main/01.html) - The full platform tutorial, from installation to production patterns