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Development

Docmost is a monorepo which uses pnpm workspace and nx. This is a guide on how to set it up for local development.

Project structure​

root
├── apps
│   ├── client  // React frontend 
│   └── server  // Nestjs backend
└── packages
    └── editor-ext // package for editor extensions

The frontend client is developed using Vite and React, with the user interface powered by the Mantine UI library. The backend server is built using the Nest.js framework.

Requirements​

To run Docmost, you'll need the following:

  • Node.js: >= 20
  • Postgres: >= 14
  • Redis/Valkey

Development setup​

Make sure you have pnpm installed npm install -g pnpm.

$ git clone https://github.com/docmost/docmost
$ cd docmost
$ pnpm install
$ cp .env.example .env

Make sure to update the .env file.

Build the editor package first​

$ pnpm nx run @docmost/editor-ext:build

Frontend​

# run in development watch mode
$ pnpm nx run client:dev

Backend​

# run in watch mode
$ pnpm nx run server:start:dev

# development
$ pnpm nx run server:start

Build project​

$ pnpm build

This will build all the necessary packages. You can run the built server and client using pnpm nx run server:start. The project will run on http://localhost:3000.
Check the package.json of each app to learn more about all the available commands.

Migrations​

In development mode, you have to run the latest migrations manually. These are the useful migration commands.

# To run all pending database migrations
$ pnpm nx run server:migration:latest

# To run one migration up
$ pnpm nx run server:migration:up

# To run one migration down
$ pnpm nx run server:migration:down

# To drop all migrations
$ pnpm nx run server:migration:reset

# To create new empty migration file. 
$ pnpm nx run server:migration:create migration_name_here

Migrations are stored inside the apps/server/src/database/migrations directory.

If you make changes to the database, e.g.creating a new table or column, you will have to regenerate the db types with

pnpm nx run server:migration:codegen

The project does not make use of any ORM. We use the Kysely query builder to build typesafe sql queries.

Ps: If you wish to make code contributions to Docmost, you will need to accept our Contributor License Agreement (CLA) before your PR can be accepted.