An application development environment is provided. A selection of instruments is provided. A selection of an instrument is received. The selected instrument is automatically queried for an identification information of an instrument driver. An absence of the instrument driver is determined in the application development environment. The instrument driver is identified at a remote storage location, the instrument driver having metadata. The identified instrument driver is verified based on the metadata. The verified instrument driver is automatically retrieved from the remote storage location. The retrieved instrument driver is installed in the application development environment. Communications are established between the application development environment and the selected instrument via the installed driver.