# Setup a Node & Frontend Locally
This doc will teach you how to set up your dev environment.\
\
Although it's not a hard prerequisite, we recommend skimming the [DeSo Code Walkthrough](https://docs.deso.org/architecture-overview/broken-reference) first, as it provides some useful context.
## Prerequisites
To run the frontend repo, you will need to be running **Node v13.13.0** and **NPM 6.14.4.**\
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We recommend using NVM to set this environment up. To run the backend you'll need Go v1.15.6 installed.\
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These can be installed via [homebrew](https://brew.sh/) by running:
```bash
brew install nvm
# follow the output to set up your ~/.nvm folder, nvm script, and shell completion
nvm install 13
# check the versions
node -v
npm -v
# then install go
brew install go@1.15
# check the version
go version
```
\
We will also assume that you have [Goland](https://www.jetbrains.com/go/) installed. This is the recommended IDE for developing on DeSo since most of the code is Go code.
Another prerequisite is [vips](https://github.com/libvips/libvips) which can be installed with [homebrew](https://brew.sh/) – `brew install vips` – or `apt install libvips-tools` on Ubuntu.
## Setup
First, you must checkout all repos into the same directory.\
\
Some of these repos are technically optional, but checking them all out allows you to hop around the code more easily.
```
cd $WORKING_DIRECTORY
git clone https://github.com/deso-protocol/core.git
git clone https://github.com/deso-protocol/backend.git
git clone https://github.com/deso-protocol/frontend.git
git clone https://github.com/deso-protocol/identity.git
```
Once all of these repos are checked out, we recommend importing them into a single Goland project. This allows you search across and develop on all of of the repos concurrently.\
\
To do this, open **Goland, hit File > Open**, select a repo folder, and select "**Attach**" when prompted.\
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If you do this correctly, you should have all four repos loaded into a single Goland project.
If you're not familiar with Goland, the following hotkeys are useful for jumping around the code ([full cheat sheet here](https://www.jetbrains.com/help/go/mastering-keyboard-shortcuts.html)):
* **SHIFT+SHIFT:** Open any file across all four repos with fuzzy search.
* **CTRL+SHIFT+F:** Search across all four repos at once with regexes.
* **CTRL+SHIFT+A:** Runs any action that you would normally find in a menu.
* **CTRL+B:** Jump to definition or find usages.
If you like Vim, you can also install the Vim plugin so you get your typical Vim hotkeys.
## Building and running locally
### Running the frontend in development mode
```
# Assume we're starting in $WORKING_DIRECTORY, which contains all the repos
cd frontend
npm install
# The following command will serve the frontend on localhost:4200 with
# auto-reloading on changes. You must run a node before the site will
# actually work however (see next section).
npm start
```
### Running the node in testnet mode
```
# Assume we're starting in $WORKING_DIRECTORY, which contains all the
# repos. Also assume we have "ng serve" running.
cd backend/scripts/nodes
# The n0_test script runs a testnet blockchain locally. It starts mining
# blocks immediately at a much faster rate than mainnet. You can set your
# public key to receive the block rewards by setting it as --miner-public-key
# in the arguments. This gives you funds that you can test with. You can see
# the status of the node by going to the Admin tab after logging in with an
# account and then going to the Network subtab.
export CGO_CFLAGS_ALLOW="-Xpreprocessor"
./n0_test
# Once n0_test is running, you must navigate to the following URL. 4200 is the
# port for ng serve. Note that in order to be
http://localhost:4200
```
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By default, your browser will point at `localhost:17001`, which is the default "mainnet" API port. \
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However, when you run n0\_test, your node spins up on `localhost:18001`.\
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To point your frontend at your testnet node, however, you must open up your inspector and change your `lastLocalNodev2` parameter to `localhost:18001` as shown in the screenshot below.\
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After you do this, you should be able to Sign Up, and everything should work normally.
### Running the node in mainnet mode
Most of the time, we develop using testnet mode because it's fast and cheap.\
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However, to make sure our changes work before pushing we like to run full-blown mainnet nodes locally.
```
# Assume we're starting in $WORKING_DIRECTORY, which contains all the repos.
# Also assume we have "ng serve" running.
cd backend/scripts/nodes
# The n0 script runs a node that connects to mainnet peers. It will download
# all the blocks from its peers and then start syncing its mempool from them.
# You can see the status of the node by going to the Admin tab after
# logging in with an account and then going to the Network subtab. Note that
# syncing the blockchain may take an hour or so.
$ ./n0
# Once n0 is running, you must navigate to the following URL. 4200 is the
# ng serve port. It should automatically hit your node, which should be
# exposing its API at localhost:17001.
http://localhost:4200
```
## Running a local identity service (optional)
Running an identity service locally is generally not required.\
\
However, doing so is as easy as running the Angular app:
```
# Assume we're starting in $WORKING_DIRECTORY, which contains all the repos
cd identity
npm install
# Install angular cli
sudo npm install -g @angular/cli typescript tslint dep
# The following command will serve identity on localhost:4201 with
# auto-reloading on changes.
ng serve --port 4201
```
In order to point your browser at your local identity service rather than at identity.deso.org, you must change a localStorage value similar to what we did to get the testnet node running.\
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In this case, we must change `lastIdentityServiceURL` to `http://localhost:4201`.\
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See the screenshot below:
