sourcebot/CONTRIBUTING.md

Build from source

Note

Building from source is only required if you'd like to contribute. The recommended way to use Sourcebot is to use the pre-built docker image.

1. Install go, docker, and NodeJS. Note that a NodeJS version of at least 21.1.0 is required.

2. Install ctags (required by zoekt)

   // macOS:
   brew install universal-ctags
   
   // Linux:
   snap install universal-ctags
   

3. Install yarn:

   npm install --global yarn
   

4. Clone the repository with submodules:

   git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot.git
   

5. Run make to build zoekt and install dependencies:

   cd sourcebot
   make
   

   The zoekt binaries and web dependencies are placed into bin and node_modules respectively.

6. Start the development Docker containers for PostgreSQL and Redis.

   docker compose -f docker-compose-dev.yml up -d
   

7. Create a copy of .env.development and name it .env.development.local. Update the required environment variables.

8. If you're using a declerative configuration file, create a configuration file and update the CONFIG_PATH environment variable in your .env.development.local file.

9. Start Sourcebot with the command:

   yarn dev
   

   A .sourcebot directory will be created and zoekt will begin to index the repositories found in the config.json file.

10. Start searching at http://localhost:3000.