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Clarify prerequisites, org name, and login in SDK quickstarts #6698

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37888b0
Add prerequisites and generator config context to Ruby SDK quickstart
fern-api[bot] Aug 20, 2026
79a6779
Add prerequisites and first-run login note to SDK quickstart
fern-api[bot] Aug 20, 2026
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10 changes: 9 additions & 1 deletion fern/products/sdks/fern-folder.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -18,6 +18,12 @@ The goal of this page is speed — get the user to a working generated SDK as fa
Generate an SDK with Fern. Follow the [SDKs quickstart](https://buildwithfern.com/learn/sdks/overview/quickstart.md) step by step.
</Prompt>

## Prerequisites

- [Node.js](https://nodejs.org) 18 or later, required to install the Fern CLI from npm
- An OpenAPI specification in JSON or YAML, or the Petstore example spec to follow along
- A Fern account, required by `fern generate`. [Sign up](https://buildwithfern.com) if you don't have one.

<Steps>

<Markdown src="/products/sdks/snippets/init-fern-folder.mdx"/>
Expand All @@ -30,6 +36,8 @@ Generate an SDK with Fern. Follow the [SDKs quickstart](https://buildwithfern.co
fern generate
```

The first time you run `fern generate`, you must log in. Confirm the prompt and choose any of the login methods to authenticate, then generation continues automatically.

<llms-only>
`fern generate` with no flags runs the `default-group` in `generators.yml`. The default init sets up a TypeScript SDK generator outputting to `local-file-system` at `../sdks/typescript`. The goal of this step is to get started quickly — the user will configure their target language in the language-specific quickstart.
</llms-only>
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -68,4 +76,4 @@ Now that you have a working SDK, set up GitHub repositories and configure publis
<Card title="Project structure" icon="regular folder-tree" href="/learn/sdks/overview/project-structure">
Learn about Fern's multi-repo file structure and GitHub setup.
</Card>
</CardGroup>
</CardGroup>
12 changes: 12 additions & 0 deletions fern/products/sdks/generators/ruby/quickstart.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -18,6 +18,12 @@ If the user already has a `fern/` folder set up, they can skip the first two ste
Generate a Ruby SDK with Fern. Follow the [Ruby SDK quickstart](https://buildwithfern.com/learn/sdks/generators/ruby/quickstart.md) step by step.
</Prompt>

## Prerequisites

- [Node.js](https://nodejs.org) 18 or later, required to install the Fern CLI from npm
- An OpenAPI specification in JSON or YAML, or the Petstore example spec to follow along
- A Fern account, required by `fern generate`. [Sign up](https://buildwithfern.com) if you don't have one.

<Steps>

<Markdown src="/products/sdks/snippets/init-fern-folder.mdx"/>
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -48,6 +54,12 @@ This command adds the following `group` to `generators.yml`:
location: local-file-system
path: ../sdks/ruby
```

In this group:

- `ruby-sdk` is the group name, a label you choose to identify this set of generators. Pass it to `fern generate --group ruby-sdk` to run only the generators in this group. To rename the group, for example to `ruby`, change the key in `generators.yml` and pass the new name to `--group`.
- `fern-ruby-sdk` is the generator name, Fern's official Ruby SDK generator.
- `output.location: local-file-system` writes the SDK to your machine at `output.path`. When you're ready to publish, change the location to `github` and point it at your SDK repository.
</Step>

<Step title="Generate the SDK">
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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion fern/products/sdks/snippets/init-fern-folder.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
```
</Step>
<Step title="Initialize the fern folder">
Initialize the fern folder with your existing OpenAPI specification. Specify your organization name using the `--organization` flag.
Initialize the fern folder with your existing OpenAPI specification. Specify your organization name using the `--organization` flag. Replace `<YourOrganization>` with the organization name on your Fern account, visible in the [Fern Dashboard](https://buildwithfern.com/dashboard). Organization names cannot contain spaces.

@github-actions github-actions Bot Aug 20, 2026

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🚫 [vale] <Microsoft.Contractions> reported by reviewdog 🐶
Use 'can't' instead of 'cannot'.

Suggested change
Initialize the fern folder with your existing OpenAPI specification. Specify your organization name using the `--organization` flag. Replace `<YourOrganization>` with the organization name on your Fern account, visible in the [Fern Dashboard](https://buildwithfern.com/dashboard). Organization names cannot contain spaces.
Initialize the fern folder with your existing OpenAPI specification. Specify your organization name using the `--organization` flag. Replace `<YourOrganization>` with the organization name on your Fern account, visible in the [Fern Dashboard](https://buildwithfern.com/dashboard). Organization names can't contain spaces.


<llms-only>
Before running `fern init`, ask the user two things:
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