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* Be opinionated, but get out of the way quickly as requirements start to diverge from the defaults.
* Provide a range of non-functional features common to large classes of projects (for example, embedded servers, security, metrics, health checks, externalized configuration).
The {docs}/html/[reference documentation] includes detailed {docs}/html/getting-started.html#getting-started-installing-spring-boot[installation instructions] as well as a comprehensive {docs}/html/getting-started.html#getting-started-first-application[``getting started``] guide.
* Check the {docs}/html/[reference documentation], especially the {docs}/html/howto.html#howto[How-to's] -- they provide solutions to the most common questions.
* Learn the Spring basics -- Spring Boot builds on many other Spring projects; check the https://spring.io[spring.io] website for a wealth of reference documentation.
* Ask a question -- we monitor https://stackoverflow.com[stackoverflow.com] for questions tagged with https://stackoverflow.com/tags/spring-boot[`spring-boot`].
You don't need to build from source to use Spring Boot (binaries in https://repo.spring.io[repo.spring.io]), but if you want to try out the latest and greatest, Spring Boot can be built and published to your local Maven cache using the https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/gradle_wrapper.html[Gradle wrapper].
Auto-configuration attempts to deduce which beans a user might need. For example, if `HSQLDB` is on the classpath, and the user has not configured any database connections, then they probably want an in-memory database to be defined.
Auto-configuration will always back away as the user starts to define their own beans.
You get a one-stop shop for all the Spring and related technology you need without having to hunt through sample code and copy-paste loads of dependency descriptors.
For example, if you want to get started using Spring and JPA for database access, include the `spring-boot-starter-data-jpa` dependency in your project, and you are good to go.
Generally, you will not need to use `spring-boot-loader` directly but work with the link:spring-boot-project/spring-boot-tools/spring-boot-gradle-plugin[Gradle] or link:spring-boot-project/spring-boot-tools/spring-boot-maven-plugin[Maven] plugin instead.
The spring-boot-devtools module provides additional development-time features, such as automatic restarts, for a smoother application development experience.
* https://spring.io/guides/gs/spring-boot/[Building an Application with Spring Boot] is an introductory guide that shows you how to create an application, run it, and add some management services.
* https://spring.io/guides/gs/actuator-service/[Building a RESTful Web Service with Spring Boot Actuator] is a guide to creating a REST web service and also shows how the server can be configured.
* https://spring.io/guides/gs/convert-jar-to-war/[Converting a Spring Boot JAR Application to a WAR] shows you how to run applications in a web server as a WAR file.