# Connecting to AWS IoT Core for Amazon Sidewalk
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This section shows you how to onboard your Sidewalk end device and then connect your device to the Sidewalk network. It describes the steps that you perform in the onboarding tutorial, as mentioned in [Introduction to onboarding your Sidewalk devices](sidewalk-getting-started.md#sidewalk-gs-workflow). You'll learn how to onboard devices by using the AWS IoT console and the AWS IoT Core for Amazon Sidewalk API operations. You'll also learn about the AWS CLI commands that perform these operations.

## Prerequisites
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To add your end device and destination to AWS IoT Core for Amazon Sidewalk, you must set up your AWS account. To perform these operations using the AWS IoT Wireless API or the AWS CLI commands, you must also set up the AWS CLI. For more information about the prerequisites and setting up, see [Installing Python and Python3-pip](getting-started.md#wireless-onboard-prereq).

**Note**  
To perform the entire onboarding workflow for provisioning and registering your end device, and connecting to your hardware development kit (HDK), you must also set up your Sidewalk gateway and HDK. For more information, see [Setting up the hardware development kit (HDK)](https://docs.sidewalk.amazon/getting-started/sidewalk-onboard-prereq-hdk.html) and [Setting up a Sidewalk gateway](https://docs.sidewalk.amazon/getting-started/sidewalk-onboard-prereq-gateway.html) in the *Amazon Sidewalk documentation*.

## Describing your Sidewalk resources
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Before you get started and create the resources, we recommend that you consider the naming convention of your Sidewalk end devices, device profiles, and destinations. AWS IoT Core for Amazon Sidewalk assigns a unique identifier to the resources that you create. However, you can give them more descriptive names, add a description, or add optional tags to help identify and manage them. 

**Note**  
The destination name can't be changed after it's created. Use a name that's unique to your AWS account and AWS Region.

For more information, see [Describing your AWS IoT Wireless resources](getting-started.md#iotwireless-describe-resources).

**Topics**
+ [Prerequisites](#sidewalk-connect-prereq)
+ [Describing your Sidewalk resources](#sidewalk-connect-resources)
+ [Add your device to AWS IoT Core for Amazon Sidewalk](iot-sidewalk-create-device.md)
+ [Add a destination for your Sidewalk end device](iot-sidewalk-qsg-destination.md)
+ [Connect your Sidewalk device and view uplink metadata format](iot-sidewalk-connect-uplink-metadata.md)