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Development setup

This guide gets you ready to develop PatchBase locally.

What you need​

  • Go 1.25+
  • Bazel (via bazelisk)
  • Node.js 20+ and pnpm
  • Docker and Docker Compose (for PostgreSQL and Mailpit)
  • golangci-lint (for linting)

1. Start the dependencies​

docker compose up -d

This starts:

  • PostgreSQL on port 5432 (database: patchbase, password: postgres)
  • Mailpit on ports 1025 (SMTP) and 8025 (web UI for email testing)

2. Create a config file​

cp config.example.yaml config.yaml

Edit config.yaml and set the encryption key and JWT secret:

encryption_key: "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef"
api:
  jwt_secret_key: "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef"
database:
  url: "postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/patchbase?sslmode=disable"
advisory_sync:
  storage_dir: "/tmp/patchbase-dev"

For local development, the storage dir can be anywhere convenient.

3. Run migrations​

bazel run //cmd/patchbase-server -- migrate

4. Start the server​

bazel run //cmd/patchbase-server -- serve

The server is now running at http://localhost:5199.

5. Frontend development​

The dashboard is a SvelteKit app in dashboard/. During development, you can run it with hot module replacement:

cd dashboard
pnpm install
pnpm dev

This starts a Vite dev server (typically on port 5173) that proxies API calls to the Go backend on port 5199.

note

When running the dashboard separately, the Go server still serves the built frontend at port 5199. The Vite dev server is only needed when you're actively working on the frontend. The built dashboard is embedded into the Go binary at build time.

6. Test database​

For integration tests, there's a separate Docker Compose file (compose.test.yaml) that runs PostgreSQL on port 5433:

docker compose -f compose.test.yaml up -d

If you change the database schema, recreate the test database volume so it loads the updated schema:

docker compose -f compose.test.yaml down -v
docker compose -f compose.test.yaml up -d

Or apply migrations manually:

bazel run //cmd/patchbase-server -- migrate --database-url "postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5433/patchbase_test?sslmode=disable"

Useful tips​

  • Add --automigrate to the serve command to run migrations before each start (handy during development): 
    bazel run //cmd/patchbase-server -- serve --automigrate
  • The config.yaml in the repo root is git-ignored, so you can keep your local config there.
  • Mailpit's web UI at http://localhost:8025 shows all emails the server "sends."