# Installation

The SurrealDB SDK for Java is available on Maven Central and can be installed using Gradle or Maven.

The SurrealDB SDK for Java is available on the [Maven Central](https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.surrealdb/surrealdb) repository. You can add it to your project using Gradle or Maven.

> [!NOTE]
> The SDK requires Java JDK version `8` or later.

## Install the SDK

Install the [SurrealDB SDK](https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.surrealdb/surrealdb) from Maven Central using [Gradle](https://gradle.org/) or [Maven](https://maven.apache.org/).

**Gradle (Groovy)**

```groovy
ext {
    surrealdbVersion = "2.1.1"
}

dependencies {
    implementation "com.surrealdb:surrealdb:${surrealdbVersion}"
}
```

**Gradle (Kotlin)**

```kotlin
val surrealdbVersion by extra("2.1.1")

dependencies {
    implementation("com.surrealdb:surrealdb:${surrealdbVersion}")
}
```

**Maven**

```xml
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.surrealdb</groupId>
    <artifactId>surrealdb</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.1</version>
</dependency>
```

## Import the SDK

After installing, you can access the SDK by importing from the `com.surrealdb` package.

```java
import com.surrealdb.Surreal;
```

## Next steps

- [Getting started](/docs/languages/java.md) for a complete working example
- [Connecting to SurrealDB](/docs/reference/java/concepts/connecting-to-surrealdb.md) for connection options and protocols
- [Authentication](/docs/reference/java/concepts/authentication.md) for signing in and managing credentials