> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.kiloiot.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.kiloiot.io/kilo-iot-server/connectors/emulator-connector.md).
# Emulator Connector
The Emulator connector lets you run the Kilo IoT Server with **no hardware at all**. Devices bound to it generate their own telemetry, so dashboards fill up, rules fire, and alarms escalate exactly as they will on site — while your sensors are still in a box, still on order, or still being specified.
Then comes the part that makes it more than a demo: **when the real device arrives, you point the same device at a real connector and keep everything you built.** The dashboards, the rules, the thresholds and the escalation chains stay exactly as they are. Only the source of the data changes.
## What the Emulator is for
Three situations where it changes how a project runs:
* **Evaluating the platform.** See your use case working — a cold room breaching its limit, an escalation chain reaching a phone — before committing to hardware.
* **Building ahead of delivery.** Sensor lead times are measured in weeks. The configuration work does not have to wait for them: build the deployment now, and go live the day the hardware lands.
* **Testing what you cannot easily reproduce.** Freezer failures, tank run-dry, a value that only misbehaves at −30 °C. You can produce the exact reading that should trigger an alarm, on demand, instead of waiting for it to happen for real.
## Adding the connector
Go to **Connectors → Add connector**, choose **Emulator**, and save. That is the entire setup.
The Emulator connector has **no settings to configure** — no credentials, no endpoint, no certificates. It exists purely so devices have something to bind to, and there is one per organization.
## Working with emulated devices
Everything else happens on the device, not here. Once the connector exists, you bind a device to it from the device's **Connection** tab, choose what it measures — by hand or from a device preset — set how often it reports, and drive its values from the device's **Emulator** tab.
**See** [**Emulated Devices**](/kilo-iot-server/devices/emulated-devices.md) for the full workflow: the device fields, presets, data types, sending values on demand, running commands against an emulated device, cloning one, and the swap to real hardware when it arrives.
## What's next
* **Create your first emulated device.** See [Emulated Devices](/kilo-iot-server/devices/emulated-devices.md).
* **Build automations against emulated data** so they are proven before go-live. See [Rules Engine](/kilo-iot-server/rules-engine.md).
* **Rehearse an escalation chain** without waiting for a real failure. See [Alarms](/kilo-iot-server/alarm.md).
* **Have the assistant do it for you** in plain language. See [Building with AI](/kilo-iot-server/ai-assistant/building-with-ai.md).
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