# Source: https://github.com/facebook/flow/blob/main/website/docs/getting-started.md

---
title: Getting Started
slug: /getting-started
description: Never used a type system before or just new to Flow? Let's get you up and running in a few minutes.
---

Flow is a static type checker for your JavaScript code. It does a lot of work
to make you more productive. Making you code faster, smarter, more confidently,
and to a bigger scale.

Flow checks your code for errors through **static type annotations**. These
_types_ allow you to tell Flow how you want your code to work, and Flow will
make sure it does work that way.

```js flow-check
function square(n: number): number {
  return n * n;
}

square("2"); // Error!
```

First step: [install Flow](../install).