# Get Started

This short tutorial will teach you the basics of using the Rev AI Node SDK. It demonstrates how to produce a transcript of an audio file submitted by you using the SDK.

## Assumptions

This tutorial assumes that:

- You have a Rev AI account and access token. If not, [sign up for a free account](https://www.rev.ai/auth/signup) and [generate an access token](/get-started#step-1-get-your-access-token).
- You have a properly configured Node development environment with a current version of Node. The Node SDK supports v8, v10, v12, v14, v16 and v17.


## Step 1: Install the SDK

Begin by installing the SDK:


```bash
npm install revai-node-sdk
```

## Step 2: Submit a file for transcription and retrieve the result

The following example demonstrates how to submit a local audio file for transcription.

To use this example, replace the `<FILEPATH>` placeholder with the path to the file you wish to transcribe and the `<REVAI_ACCESS_TOKEN>` placeholder with your Rev AI account's access token.


```javascript
// create a client
import { RevAiApiClient } from 'revai-node-sdk';

var accessToken = '<REVAI_ACCESS_TOKEN>';
var filePath = '<FILEPATH>';

// initialize the client with your access token
var client = new RevAiApiClient(accessToken);

// submit a local file
var job = await client.submitJobLocalFile(filePath);

// retrieve transcript
// as plain text
var transcriptText = await client.getTranscriptText(job.id);

// or as an object
var transcriptObject = await client.getTranscriptObject(job.id);
```

You can also submit a [remote file](/sdk/node/code-samples#submit-a-remote-file-for-transcription) or an [audio stream](/sdk/node/code-samples#submit-an-audio-stream-for-transcription).

The text output is a string containing just the text of your transcript. The object form of the transcript contains all the information outlined in the response of the [transcript retrieval endpoint of the Asynchronous Speech-to-Text API](/api/asynchronous) when using the JSON response schema.

Any of these outputs can also be retrieved as a stream for easy file writing:


```javascript
var textStream = await client.getTranscriptTextStream(job.id);
var transcriptStream = await client.getTranscriptObjectStream(job.id);
```

## Next steps

You should now have a basic understanding of how to use the Node SDK. To learn more, refer to the [SDK documentation](https://github.com/revdotcom/revai-node-sdk/blob/master/README.md) and [code samples](/sdk/node/code-samples).