As well as the [esp-idf-template](https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf-template) project mentioned in the setup guide, ESP-IDF comes with some example projects in the [examples](examples) directory.
Once you've found the project you want to work with, change to its directory and you can configure and build it.
This will flash the entire project (app, bootloader and partition table) to a new chip. The settings for serial port flashing can be configured with `idf.py menuconfig`.
The `idf.py monitor` target uses the [idf_monitor tool](https://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/get-started/idf-monitor.html) to display serial output from the ESP32. idf_monitor also has a range of features to decode crash output and interact with the device. [Check the documentation page for details](https://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/get-started/idf-monitor.html).
Once you've compiled your project, the "build" directory will contain a binary file with a name like "my_app.bin". This is an ESP32 image binary that can be loaded by the bootloader.
A single ESP32's flash can contain multiple apps, as well as many different kinds of data (calibration data, filesystems, parameter storage, etc). For this reason a partition table is flashed to offset 0x8000 in the flash.
Each entry in the partition table has a name (label), type (app, data, or something else), subtype and the offset in flash where the partition is loaded.
For more details about partition tables and how to create custom variations, view the [`docs/en/api-guides/partition-tables.rst`](docs/en/api-guides/partition-tables.rst) file.
The `idf.py flash` target does not erase the entire flash contents. However it is sometimes useful to set the device back to a totally erased state, particularly when making partition table changes or OTA app updates. To erase the entire flash, run `idf.py erase_flash`.
This can be combined with other targets, ie `idf.py erase_flash flash` will erase everything and then re-flash the new app, bootloader and partition table.
* Documentation for the latest version: https://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/. This documentation is built from the [docs directory](docs) of this repository.
* [Check the Issues section on github](https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf/issues) if you find a bug or have a feature request. Please check existing Issues before opening a new one.
* If you're interested in contributing to ESP-IDF, please check the [Contributions Guide](https://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contribute/index.html).