# Set up your dev environment Let's get up and running with a dev environment, so you can make code changes without affecting production. By the end of this guide, you will have: 1. Set up Docker to run the containerized dev environment 2. Cloned the public protohaven\_api repository where our code is hosted 3. Set up pre-commit to automatically format and check code changes for problems 4. Initialized NocoDB - our development database - to run locally with testing data 5. Verified that both CLI commands and the web service works. 6. Successfully made edits to both the CLI and web service. ### Install Docker We rely heavily on using docker containers to run the various services in a dev environment - make sure Docker is [installed](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/) first before continuing. Once docker is installed, run `sudo docker run hello-world` and verify that it pulls a container image, starts the container, prints a status message and exits with no errors: [![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/6KOimage.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/6KOimage.png) ### Clone the repository & set up pre-commit Next, let's grab the code and set up [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/), which autoformats our code and identifies errors before we try to submit changes. Log into GitHub, then go to [https://github.com/protohaven/protohaven\_api](https://github.com/protohaven/protohaven_api). You should see a "fork" option on the repository, towards the right of the screen: [![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/TQoimage.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/TQoimage.png) Follow the onscreen process for forking the repository, then perform the steps below. ```bash # Clone the repository - be sure to substitute your username! git clone git@github.com:/protohaven_api.git # Set up a virtual environment so we can run tests and pre-commit stuff python3 -m venv venv source ./venv/bin/activate pip install -r requirements.txt pip install -e . # Set up pre-commit validation hooks pip install pre-commit cd protohaven_api && pre-commit install ``` After pre-commit finishes installing, run it on all files (with `pre-commit run --all-files`) and verify everything passes: [![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/Qbhimage.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/Qbhimage.png) ### Load Data (NocoDB) We use [NocoDB](https://www.nocodb.com/) to provide local testing data. **Nocodb must be running in order to run other local dev services** like Flask and the svelte frontend, **and we must prefill it** with tables and dev data so that it behaves as expected locally. To initialize NocoDB with testing data - **or wipe and re-populate the data if it's already installed** - run this command: ```bash # Must run in the root of the protohaven_api repository, or it will fail cd path/to/protohaven_api ./nocodb/init_or_update_nocodb.sh ``` Follow the prompts in the script, which should have you browse to [http://localhost:9090](http://localhost:9090) and login with: - Username: - Password: `password` Verify you see something like this and can click around into various bases and tables and see test data: [![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/16kimage.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/16kimage.png) ### Start services With NocoDB now up, let's run the other containers that host our various services: ``` docker compose up --build --watch ``` Wait for the build and setup process to finish up - this may take a few minutes. You'll know it's done when you see something like this in your console: [![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/4lrimage.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/4lrimage.png)

Take particular note of `Watch enabled` - if that's not present, things won't auto reload when you make a change.

For dev work in specific areas (e.g. working with the svelte webpages) you can start a subset of containers to reduce excess load, e.g. `docker compose up flask nocodb_frontend nocodb_db svelte --build --watch`

Now browse to: [https://localhost:5173/](https://localhost:5173/) and verify you can access the dev landing page: [![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/72Kimage.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/72Kimage.png) Using your editor of choice, open `svelte/src/routes/+page.svelte` in the repository you cloned. Add a little text to the file, then save it. [![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/Ud8image.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/Ud8image.png) In your console, you'll see `Syncing service "svelte" after 1 changes were detected` as docker notices the changed file. Reload the landing page and confirm the change propagated: [![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/aIXimage.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/aIXimage.png) ### Run the CLI Our codebase includes an extensible CLI. We issue these commands on a regular schedule with [Cronicle](https://wiki.protohaven.org/books/software-developers-handbook/page/cronicle "Cronicle"), and can run one-offs for troubleshooting and special actions. Let's make sure the CLI works so we can test local changes to CLI commands: ```bash # Test your setup - you should see a YAML formatted message reminding instructors to schedule classes docker compose exec flask python3 -m protohaven_api.cli gen_instructor_schedule_reminder ```

**Important:** All services must be running in order to execute CLI commands

Verify you see something like the following output (no errors):[![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/opBimage.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/opBimage.png) Let's confirm that changes to CLI code are runnable. Edit `protohaven_api/commands/classes.py`, adding a log statement to the `gen_instructor_schedule_reminder` method [![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/tjEimage.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/tjEimage.png) Save the file, then rerun the exec command above. Verify that you see `INFO:cli.classes:Hello world` in the console output. ### Run Tests We use [pytest](https://docs.pytest.org/en/stable/) for unit testing code changes. Run `python -m pytest -vv` and observe all tests passing, possibly with some deprecation warnings: [![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/vCBimage.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/vCBimage.png)

**Protip:** You can optionally use `-k test_substring` as an argument to run a specific test.

### Well Done [![image.png](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/scaled-1680-/XlSimage.png)](https://wiki.protohaven.org/uploads/images/gallery/2025-10/XlSimage.png) Congrats on making it through dev environment setup! Now let's put it to work and make [your first contribution.](https://wiki.protohaven.org/books/software-developers-handbook/page/your-first-contribution "Your First Contribution")