Prerequisites

Required software for development.

Backend Requirements

Go

• Version: Go 1.24 or later
• Download: https://go.dev/dl/

Verify installation:

go version

Air (Hot Reload)

Install Air for automatic recompilation during development:

go install github.com/air-verse/air@latest

PostgreSQL

• Version: PostgreSQL 15 or later
• Download: https://www.postgresql.org/downloads/

Options:

• PostgreSQL installer (includes pgAdmin)
• Docker: docker run -p 5433:5432 -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres postgres:15

Valkey/Redis (Required)

Used for server-side session storage. The backend requires Valkey or Redis to be running for authentication to work.

• Valkey (preferred): https://valkey.io/
• Redis: https://redis.io/download/
• Docker (Valkey): docker run -p 6379:6379 valkey/valkey:8
• Docker (Redis): docker run -p 6379:6379 redis:7

WARNING

Valkey/Redis is required, not optional. Without it, users cannot log in because sessions are stored in Valkey.

Frontend Requirements

Node.js

• Version: Node.js 18 or later
• Download: https://nodejs.org/

Verify installation:

node --version
npm --version

Development Tools

Recommended

• VS Code - Code editor
• pgAdmin or DBeaver - PostgreSQL database management
• Mailpit - Local email testing (docker run -p 1025:1025 -p 8025:8025 axllent/mailpit)
• Git - Version control
• Postman or Thunder Client - API testing

VS Code Extensions

• Go (golang.go)
• Volar (Vue 3)
• ESLint
• Prettier
• GitLens