Craievich, P. JACoW Publishing Geneva, Switzerland 2226-0366 978-3-95450-194-6 10.18429/JACoW-LINAC2018-WE1A05 English 605-608 WE1A05 linac FEL electron experiment operation Contribution to a conference proceedings 2019 2019-01 https://doi.org/10.18429/JACoW-LINAC2018-WE1A05 http://jacow.org/linac2018/papers/we1a05.pdf SwissFEL, the hard x-ray free-electron laser facility at PSI, is in an advanced commissioning phase. The commissioning of the 5.8 GeV Linac started in 2016 and the first FEL pilot-experiments were performed at a reduced beam energy in the end of 2017. In 2018, it is foreseen to progressively increase the electron beam energy and photon energy up to the maximum design values, interleaved by several FEL pilot experiments. This paper gives an overview of the commissioning progress including the achieved machine performance and first operational experience.