# 2. Connect to a Cluster

In order to deploy your new project, you (perhaps obviously) need somewhere to deploy it to.

Here we hit a bit of a fork in the road, since you have a choice between setting up a local Kubernetes cluster on your dev machine *or* to connect to a remote cluster.

We have separate guides for each of these options. Pick the one you prefer, walk through that guide, and then come back here or skip straight to the [next section](https://docs.garden.io/acorn-0.12/tutorials/your-first-project/3-deploy-and-test).

* [Local Kubernetes](https://docs.garden.io/acorn-0.12/kubernetes-plugins/local-k8s)
* [Remote Kubernetes](https://docs.garden.io/acorn-0.12/kubernetes-plugins/remote-k8s)

Once you've set up your cluster and updated your project configuration accordingly, we can move on to [deploying and testing your project](https://docs.garden.io/acorn-0.12/tutorials/your-first-project/3-deploy-and-test).