feat: dockerized development setup with live reloading #441

zhravan · 2025-09-30T10:09:32Z

Description:

This PR introduces a comprehensive dockerized development environment with live reloading capabilities for the Nixopus project. The changes separate development and production deployment modes, enabling developers to run the entire stack locally with hot-reload functionality.

Summary by CodeRabbit

New Features
- Added development install mode in the CLI with options for path, repo, branch, and dry-run.
- Introduced a development Dockerfile and docker-compose setup for API, DB, Redis, Supertokens, and Caddy with health checks.
- Development workflow includes live-reload, frontend dev server start, and service readiness checks.
Chores
- Updated API version release timestamp to UTC.
- Adjusted dev configuration: ports (3000), SSH host/key defaults, compose file path, and yarn requirement.
- Removed nextjs-cors dependency from the frontend.

coderabbitai · 2025-09-30T10:09:39Z

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Walkthrough

Introduces a development workflow: adds an API dev Dockerfile and a dev docker-compose stack, extends the CLI installer with a development subcommand and control-flow paths, updates dev configuration defaults, removes a view dependency, and refreshes the API version timestamp.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
CLI install: development mode `cli/app/commands/install/command.py`, `cli/app/commands/install/run.py`	Adds an install development subcommand and development flags/paths in Install. Adjusts run flow for dev: dependency checks, skips proxy, starts frontend, validates services, updates env vars, and alters success messaging. Inserts cleanup timing when --force.
Dev Docker and Compose `api/Dockerfile.dev`, `docker-compose-dev.yml`	Adds a Go Alpine-based API dev Dockerfile with air, module caching, and live reload. Introduces a dev docker-compose with API, Redis, Postgres, Supertokens, Caddy, healthchecks, shared network, volumes, and dev-friendly env/ports.
Dev config defaults `helpers/config.dev.yaml`	Switches compose file to docker-compose-dev.yml, updates ports (3000), SSH host/key defaults, adds yarn constraint, removes certain deps, and aligns values for dev.
API metadata `api/api/versions.json`	Updates v1 release_date to a new UTC timestamp; structure unchanged.
View dependency cleanup `view/package.json`	Removes dependency on nextjs-cors.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  autonumber
  participant U as User
  participant CLI as nixopus CLI
  participant I as Install (development=True)
  participant DC as docker-compose (dev)
  participant API as API Service
  participant V as Frontend Dev Server
  participant DB as Postgres
  participant R as Redis
  participant ST as Supertokens
  participant C as Caddy

  U->>CLI: nixopus install development [options]
  CLI->>I: Construct Install(development=True, dev_install_path)
  I->>I: _get_config(dev) and log setup
  I->>I: _check_and_install_dependencies_dev()
  alt --force
    I->>I: _cleanup_docker()
  end
  I->>DC: up -d (api, db, redis, supertokens, caddy)
  DC-->>DB: start + healthcheck
  DC-->>R: start + healthcheck
  DC-->>ST: start + healthcheck
  DC-->>API: build from Dockerfile.dev + healthcheck
  DC-->>C: start + healthcheck
  I->>I: _start_frontend() (yarn install && dev)
  I->>I: _validate_services() (HTTP readiness)
  I-->>CLI: success details (ports, logs, commands)
  CLI-->>U: Output summary
  note over I,DC: Proxy setup skipped in dev

Estimated code review effort

🎯 4 (Complex) | ⏱️ ~60 minutes

Possibly related PRs

fix(cli): add Docker cleanup on force reinstall to ensure fresh stack #371 — Also edits the install workflow to insert a Docker cleanup step when --force is used.
release v0.1.0-alpha.31 #428 — Updates api/api/versions.json release_date, same file touched here.
feat: integration of viper configuration management in api #311 — Modifies helpers/config.dev.yaml with dev defaults, overlapping configuration area.

Suggested labels

nixopus-api, cli, nixopus-config, nixopus-view

Suggested reviewers

raghavyuva

Poem

A rabbit taps keys by the moon’s cool glow,
Spins up dev stacks where fresh ports flow.
Caddy hums, Redis chirps, DB says hi,
The frontend twirls while hot-reloads fly.
With whiskered pride and dockered delight,
I hop through healthchecks—green lights tonight! 🐇✨

✨ Finishing touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

Create PR with unit tests
Post copyable unit tests in a comment

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… feat/dev-setup-stokns # Please enter a commit message to explain why this merge is necessary, # especially if it merges an updated upstream into a topic branch. # # Lines starting with '#' will be ignored, and an empty message aborts # the commit.

… feat/dev-setup-stokns

zhravan · 2025-10-07T19:23:54Z

@coderabbitai: Add detailed summary and detailed review

coderabbitai · 2025-10-07T19:25:16Z

🧩 Analysis chain

🏁 Script executed:

#!/bin/bash

# Get PR details
echo "=== PR Details ==="
gh pr view 441 --json title,body,files,additions,deletions,changedFiles,commits

echo -e "\n=== PR Diff ==="
gh pr diff 441

echo -e "\n=== List of changed files ==="
gh pr view 441 --json files --jq '.files[].path'

Length of output: 90435

@zhravan: I'll provide a detailed summary and review of this PR.

Detailed Summary

This PR introduces a comprehensive dockerized development environment with live reloading capabilities for the Nixopus project. The changes separate development and production deployment modes, enabling developers to run the entire stack locally with hot-reload functionality.

Key Changes:

1. New Development Dockerfile (`api/Dockerfile.dev`)

Uses golang:alpine as base image
Installs Air for Go live reloading
Mounts source code as volumes for hot-reload
Configures development-specific environment

2. Development Docker Compose (`docker-compose-dev.yml`)

Services configured: API (with Air), PostgreSQL, Redis, SuperTokens, Caddy
Live reloading enabled for backend via Air
Volume mounts for source code, SSH keys, Docker socket
Service dependencies and health checks properly configured
Container networking with host.docker.internal for SSH access

3. CLI Enhancement (`cli/app/commands/install/command.py` & `run.py`)

New command: install development for local dev setup
Intelligent dependency management: Only installs missing dependencies in dev mode
Frontend startup: Automatically installs and starts Next.js dev server
Service validation: Health checks for backend and frontend
Environment isolation: Separate env variable handling for dev vs production
Enhanced messaging: Detailed success messages with service URLs, logs, and commands

4. Configuration Updates (`helpers/config.dev.yaml`)

Removed containerized dependencies (Redis, PostgreSQL, Go, Air) from host requirements
Updated SSH configuration for container-to-host access (host.docker.internal)
Changed default ports (API: 8080, Frontend: 3000)
Updated compose file reference to docker-compose-dev.yml

5. Dependency Cleanup

Removed nextjs-cors package (no longer needed)
Updated various yarn dependencies in lock file

Architecture Improvements:

Separation of Concerns: Clear distinction between production and development modes
Developer Experience: One command to set up entire local environment
Live Reloading: Instant feedback for code changes (backend via Air, frontend via Next.js)
Service Orchestration: Proper startup order, health checks, and dependency management
Localhost Access: Backend can SSH to host machine for development/testing

Workflow:

# Install development environment
nixopus install development --path /path/to/dev

# Services start automatically:
# - Backend: http://localhost:8080 (with live reload)
# - Frontend: http://localhost:3000 (with Next.js dev server)
# - Database, Redis, SuperTokens, Caddy (all containerized)

# View logs, make changes, and see live updates

Detailed Review

🎯 Strengths

Comprehensive Solution: The PR covers all aspects of a development environment - containers, CLI, configuration, and documentation through success messages
Smart Dependency Handling: The _check_and_install_dependencies_dev() method only installs missing dependencies, improving installation speed on subsequent runs
Proper Service Orchestration: Health checks and dependency management ensure services start in the correct order
Excellent Developer Feedback: Success messages provide all necessary information (URLs, log commands, restart commands)
Environment Variable Isolation: Clear separation between dev and prod environment configurations

⚠️ Areas for Improvement

1. Error Handling and Cleanup (Lines 443-500 in `run.py`)

The frontend startup process creates background processes and log files but lacks proper cleanup on failure:

def _start_frontend(self):
    # ... 
    try:
        log_file = open(log_file_path, "w")
        process = subprocess.Popen(...)
        
        # If process fails, log_file remains open
        if process.poll() is not None:
            raise Exception("Frontend server failed to start. Check logs/frontend.log")

Suggestion: Add proper resource cleanup:

def _start_frontend(self):
    log_file = None
    try:
        log_file = open(log_file_path, "w")
        process = subprocess.Popen(...)
        
        time.sleep(5)
        
        if process.poll() is not None:
            raise Exception("Frontend server failed to start. Check logs/frontend.log")
            
    except Exception as e:
        if log_file:
            log_file.close()
        raise Exception(f"Failed to start frontend: {str(e)}")

2. Service Validation Reliability (Lines 502-625 in `run.py`)

The validation uses hardcoded retry counts and sleep intervals:

for i in range(5):  # Hardcoded retries
    try:
        response = urllib.request.urlopen(backend_url, timeout=5)
        ...
    except Exception:
        if i < 4:
            time.sleep(2)  # Hardcoded sleep

Suggestion: Make these configurable and use exponential backoff:

def _validate_service(self, url, service_name, max_retries=5, initial_delay=1):
    for attempt in range(max_retries):
        try:
            response = urllib.request.urlopen(url, timeout=5)
            return True
        except Exception:
            if attempt < max_retries - 1:
                delay = initial_delay * (2 ** attempt)  # Exponential backoff
                time.sleep(min(delay, 10))  # Cap at 10 seconds
    return False

3. Docker Compose Resource Management

The docker-compose-dev.yml doesn't specify resource limits:

api:
  build:
    context: ./api
    dockerfile: Dockerfile.dev
  # No resource limits specified

Suggestion: Add resource constraints to prevent resource exhaustion:

api:
  build:
    context: ./api
    dockerfile: Dockerfile.dev
  deploy:
    resources:
      limits:
        cpus: '2'
        memory: 2G
      reservations:
        cpus: '1'
        memory: 512M

4. SSH Key Configuration (Line 449 in `run.py`)

The SSH key path is hardcoded:

if key == "ssh_key_path":
    return os.path.expanduser("~/.ssh/id_rsa_nixopus")

Suggestion: Make it configurable through config or allow override via environment variable.

5. Missing Frontend Stop Command

The success message shows how to stop the frontend but doesn't provide a helper command:

self.logger.info(f"  • Frontend:  kill $(cat {os.path.join(install_dir, 'logs', 'frontend.pid')})")

Suggestion: Add a CLI command to stop/restart services:

nixopus dev stop
nixopus dev restart
nixopus dev logs [service]

6. Dockerfile Security

The api/Dockerfile.dev runs as root:

WORKDIR /app
# No USER directive
CMD ["air"]

Suggestion: Add non-root user for better security:

FROM golang:alpine
RUN addgroup -S appgroup && adduser -S appuser -G appgroup
# ... rest of setup
USER appuser
CMD ["air"]

📝 Minor Issues

Line 3 in api/Dockerfile.dev: Comment says "Install air for live reload" but should mention bash, git, curl, make are also installed
Line 106 in docker-compose-dev.yml: Comment says "Basic health check" but it only checks if Caddy binary is available, not if it's serving correctly
Line 621 in run.py: Duplicate code between verbose and non-verbose success messages - consider refactoring

✅ Testing Recommendations

Test installation on clean machines (no existing dependencies)
Test with missing yarn/node (should fail gracefully)
Test frontend/backend restart scenarios
Test with non-standard ports (port conflicts)
Verify SSH access from container to host
Test cleanup when installation fails mid-way

Conclusion

This is an excellent PR that significantly improves the developer experience. The implementation is comprehensive and well-thought-out. The suggested improvements mainly focus on robustness, error handling, and security hardening.

Recommendation: Approve with minor improvements for error handling and resource management.

✅ Actions performed

Summary regeneration triggered.

raghavyuva

Hey @zhravan here are some details to take care, rest LGTM!

raghavyuva · 2025-10-10T13:18:32Z

cli/app/commands/install/command.py

            view_domain=view_domain,
            repo=repo,
            branch=branch,
+            development=False,


if Install and DevelopmentInstall are two seperate methods then why are we passing development=False here?

raghavyuva · 2025-10-10T13:20:52Z

cli/app/utils/config.py

        self._cache = {}

+        # Determine config file based on environment
+        config_file = "config.dev.yaml" if default_env.upper() == "DEVELOPMENT" else "config.prod.yaml"


should we also have a over ride yaml right here? like if we set a CUSTOM_YAML='/some/path' then it should override these behaviours by default.

not related to this PR, but good to go as you are aware of the flow here,

raghavyuva · 2025-10-10T13:22:43Z

helpers/config.dev.yaml

      SSH_PORT: ${SSH_PORT:-22}
      SSH_USER: ${SSH_USER:-$USER}
-      SSH_PRIVATE_KEY: ${SSH_PRIVATE_KEY:-~/.ssh/id_rsa_nixopus}
+      SSH_PRIVATE_KEY: ${SSH_PRIVATE_KEY:-/root/.ssh/id_rsa_nixopus}


why root instead of HOME directory?

raghavyuva · 2025-10-10T13:23:57Z

view/package.json

    "lucide-react": "^0.479.0",
    "next": "15.2.3",
    "next-themes": "^0.4.4",
-    "nextjs-cors": "^2.2.0",


should we revert this change? and keep it in a seperate pr?

raghavyuva · 2025-10-10T13:25:24Z

docker-compose.yml

-  
-  supertokens:
+
+  nixopus-supertokens:


let's avoid this change for now, and see if this is affecting in production,

have you tested this change?

raghavyuva · 2025-10-10T13:29:30Z

cli/app/commands/install/development.py

What happens if some containers are running and some fails out? are we handling proper cleanup ensure so that user does not have to come in a state where he does not what happened, and not sure how to resolve in a half broken state?

zhravan added 6 commits September 29, 2025 23:16

feat: add dockerfiles for dev envs view and api

085cdc4

feat: version update

899009d

feat: docker-compose initialization service common redis, view, api

32ba95f

feat: add supertokens, caddy with volume

64d3530

feat: sync with master - packagae versioning

cc44612

feat: sync with master - packagae versioning

5622dea

zhravan added 7 commits October 4, 2025 23:17

Merge branch 'feat/supertokens' of github.com:raghavyuva/nixopus into…

a6ecde2

… feat/dev-setup-stokns

feat: live reloading for backend service only

bdc13a4

feat: dev live reload enabled

3a94a91

feat: live reloading for backend service with ssh enabled

3c22cf6

feat: add setup for dev env

6c66e91

feat: auto start service with customized configs

2151809

feat: increaase timeout for yarn installation

027fd62

zhravan added 4 commits October 8, 2025 23:16

refactor: separate out code for development stage

ef2ac6d

refactor: create base install for common code

8e95321

refactor: final modification for development install to be used across

515bff0

ci(minor): bump minor version

6aace6c

zhravan requested a review from raghavyuva October 10, 2025 06:31

zhravan added 2 commits October 10, 2025 17:47

chores: refactor and minor tweaks for other OSes

0fe4047

chores: add prefix nixopus for super tokens

d8bc8f1

raghavyuva requested changes Oct 10, 2025

View reviewed changes

chores: add partial support for dev on windows with wsl2

9d9bc73

zhravan deleted the branch raghavyuva:feat/supertokens October 11, 2025 07:42

zhravan closed this Oct 11, 2025

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Walkthrough

Changes

Sequence Diagram(s)

Estimated code review effort

Possibly related PRs

Suggested labels

Suggested reviewers

Poem

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Detailed Summary

Key Changes:

1. New Development Dockerfile (api/Dockerfile.dev)

2. Development Docker Compose (docker-compose-dev.yml)

3. CLI Enhancement (cli/app/commands/install/command.py & run.py)

4. Configuration Updates (helpers/config.dev.yaml)

5. Dependency Cleanup

Architecture Improvements:

Workflow:

Detailed Review

🎯 Strengths

⚠️ Areas for Improvement

1. Error Handling and Cleanup (Lines 443-500 in run.py)

2. Service Validation Reliability (Lines 502-625 in run.py)

3. Docker Compose Resource Management

4. SSH Key Configuration (Line 449 in run.py)

5. Missing Frontend Stop Command

6. Dockerfile Security

📝 Minor Issues

✅ Testing Recommendations

Conclusion

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1. New Development Dockerfile (`api/Dockerfile.dev`)

2. Development Docker Compose (`docker-compose-dev.yml`)

3. CLI Enhancement (`cli/app/commands/install/command.py` & `run.py`)

4. Configuration Updates (`helpers/config.dev.yaml`)

1. Error Handling and Cleanup (Lines 443-500 in `run.py`)

2. Service Validation Reliability (Lines 502-625 in `run.py`)

4. SSH Key Configuration (Line 449 in `run.py`)