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how-to-setup-freecodecamp-locally.md

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Follow these guidelines for setting up a development environment for freeCodeCamp. This is highly recommended if you want to contribute regularly.

Choose between Gitpod or your Own Machine (local setup)

If you are looking to make a one-off contribution, you should use Gitpod to make changes. The Gitpod setup launches a ready-to-code environment in a few minutes in your web browser. For contributing long-term, we recommend you setup freeCodeCamp on your local machine.

Here are some pros and cons which should help you decide which option is best for you:

Gitpod Your own machine (local setup)
No minimum hardware requirements Specific and minimum requirements
No need to install any software Additional software required
Always up to date copy of repository Need to maintain a local copy of the repository
Slower and can take a few minutes to launch Faster and can be launched in seconds
Need an internet connection to work Minimal internet connection required (once setup)
Some tasks like compilation and tests can take longer to complete Faster completion of tasks (depending on your machine's capabilities)

[!ATTENTION] Note: If you are using Windows 10 or 11, you will need to use WSL2. You can follow this guide to set up WSL2. You can't use Command Prompt, Git Bash or PowerShell to run freeCodeCamp natively within windows.

How to Prepare a Gitpod Workspace

We have automated the process of installing all the dependencies & tools you will need. With Gitpod you get a free ready-to-code environment in a few minutes, and is useful if you do not have access to computer or want to make one-time changes.

There are various ways to launch an Gitpod workspace:

  1. (Fastest) Prepend gitpod.io/# in front of any URL from GitHub.

    For example, if you visit your fork at https://github.com/YOUR_USER_NAME/freeCodeCamp.git, add gitpod.io/# in the front of the URL in the address bar and hit enter.

    That is you can navigate to gitpod.io/#https://github.com/YOUR_USER_NAME/freeCodeCamp.git and you should see a workspace created for you. This works for any repository or pull-request on GitHub.

  2. Alternatively install one of the below extensions for your browser.

    Once installed you will see a 'Gitpod' button on every repository, pull-request, etc. as a handy shortcut to launch a workspace from there. See the extension page for details, screenshots, etc.

That's it, you can now skip to the 'syncing up from parent' section after you have launched a Gitpod workspace. Most parts of this guide applies to Gitpod workspaces, but be mindful of how the URLs & Ports work within a Gitpod workspace.

Note: Troubleshooting port issues on Gitpod

Sometimes the service on port 8000 doesn't go live. This is common when you are restarting an inactive workspace.

If the service is not coming up on port 8000, you can troubleshoot using these steps:

  • Start the server: Run pnpm run develop:server in one terminal window from the root project directory (/workspace/freeCodeCamp) to start the server.

  • Start the client: In another terminal window, run pnpm run develop -- -H '0.0.0.0' from the client directory (/workspace/freeCodeCamp/client) to start the client.

This should make port 8000 available.

How to Prepare your Local Machine

Here is a minimum system requirement for running freeCodeCamp locally:

  • 8 GB RAM
  • Relatively fast CPU (4+ cores)
  • Windows 10 or 11 (with WSL), macOS, or Linux

Start by installing the prerequisite software for your operating system.

We primarily support development on Linux and Unix-based systems like Ubuntu and macOS. You can develop on Windows 10 or 11 with WSL2 only. You can follow this guide to set up WSL2. You can't use Command Prompt, Git Bash or PowerShell to run freeCodeCamp natively within windows.

Prerequisites:

Prerequisite Version Notes
Node.js 18.x We use the "Active LTS" version, See LTS Schedule.
pnpm 8.x -
MongoDB Community Server 5.0.x -

[!ATTENTION] If you have a different version, please install the recommended version. We can only support installation issues for recommended versions. See troubleshooting section for details.

If Node.js is already installed on your machine, run the following commands to validate the versions:

node -v
pnpm -v

Tip

We highly recommend updating to the latest stable releases of the software listed above, also known as Long Term Support (LTS) releases.

Once you have the prerequisites installed, you need to prepare your development environment. This is common for many development workflows, and you will only need to do this once.

Follow these steps to get your development environment ready:

  1. Install Git or your favorite Git client, if you haven't already. Update to the latest version; the version that came bundled with your OS may be outdated.

  2. (Optional but recommended) Set up an SSH Key for GitHub.

  3. Install a code editor of your choice. If you aren't sure which one to use, we recommend Visual Studio Code — it's free and open source.

  4. Set up linting for your code editor.

    You should have ESLint running in your editor, and it will highlight anything that doesn't conform to freeCodeCamp's JavaScript Style Guide.

    [!TIP] Please do not ignore any linting errors. They are meant to help you and to ensure a clean and simple codebase.

Fork the Repository on GitHub

Forking is a step where you get your own copy of freeCodeCamp's main repository (a.k.a repo) on GitHub.

This is essential, as it allows you to work on your own copy of freeCodeCamp on GitHub, or to download (clone) your repository to work on locally. Later, you will be able to request changes to be pulled into the main repository from your fork via a pull request (PR).

Tip

The main repository at https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp is often referred to as the upstream repository.

Your fork at https://github.com/YOUR_USER_NAME/freeCodeCamp is often referred to as the origin repository. YOUR_USER_NAME would be replaced with your GitHub username.

Follow these steps to fork the https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp repository:

  1. Go to the freeCodeCamp repository on GitHub: https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp

  2. Click the "Fork" Button in the upper right-hand corner of the interface (More Details Here)

  3. After the repository has been forked, you will be taken to your copy of the freeCodeCamp repository at https://github.com/YOUR_USER_NAME/freeCodeCamp (YOUR_USER_NAME would be replaced with your GitHub user name.)

How to fork freeCodeCamp on GitHub (screenshot)
How to fork freeCodeCamp on GitHub

Clone your Fork from GitHub

Cloning is where you download a copy of a repository from a remote location that is either owned by you or by someone else. In your case, this remote location is your fork of freeCodeCamp's repository that should be available at https://github.com/YOUR_USER_NAME/freeCodeCamp. (YOUR_USER_NAME would be replaced with your GitHub user name.)

Warning

If you are working on a WSL2 Linux Distro, you might get performance and stability issues by running this project in a folder which is shared between Windows and WSL2 (e.g. /mnt/c/Users/). Therefore we recommend to clone this repo into a folder which is mainly used by your WSL2 Linux Distro and not directly shared with Windows (e.g. ~/PROJECTS/).

See this GitHub Issue for further information about this problem.

Run these commands on your local machine:

  1. Open a Terminal / Command Prompt / Shell in your projects directory

    i.e.: /yourprojectsdirectory/

  2. Clone your fork of freeCodeCamp, replacing YOUR_USER_NAME with your GitHub Username

    git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/YOUR_USER_NAME/freeCodeCamp.git

This will download the entire freeCodeCamp repository to your projects directory.

Note: --depth=1 creates a shallow clone of your fork, with only the most recent history/commit.

Set up Syncing from Parent

Now that you have downloaded a copy of your fork, you will need to set up an upstream remote to the parent repository.

As mentioned earlier, the main repository is referred to as the upstream repository. Your fork is referred to as the origin repository.

You need a reference from your local clone to the upstream repository in addition to the origin repository. This is so that you can sync changes from the main repository without the requirement of forking and cloning repeatedly.

  1. Change directory to the new freeCodeCamp directory:

    cd freeCodeCamp

  2. Add a remote reference to the main freeCodeCamp repository:

    git remote add upstream https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp.git

  3. Ensure the configuration looks correct:

    git remote -v

    The output should look something like below (replacing YOUR_USER_NAME with your GitHub username):

    origin    https://github.com/YOUR_USER_NAME/freeCodeCamp.git (fetch)
origin    https://github.com/YOUR_USER_NAME/freeCodeCamp.git (push)
upstream    https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp.git (fetch)
upstream    https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp.git (push)

Running freeCodeCamp Locally

Now that you have a local copy of freeCodeCamp, you can follow these instructions to run it locally. This will allow you to:

  • Preview edits to pages as they would appear on the learning platform.
  • Work on UI related issues and enhancements.
  • Debug and fix issues with the application servers and client apps.

If you do run into issues, first perform a web search for your issue and see if it has already been answered. If you cannot find a solution, please search our GitHub issues page for a solution and report the issue if it has not yet been reported.

And as always, feel free to ask questions on the 'Contributors' category on our forum or our chat server.

Configuring Dependencies

Step 1: Set up the Environment Variable File

The default API keys and environment variables are stored in the file sample.env. This file needs to be copied to a new file named .env that is accessed dynamically during the installation step.

# Create a copy of the "sample.env" and name it ".env".
# Populate it with the necessary API keys and secrets:

macOS/Linux

cp sample.env .env

Windows

copy sample.env .env

The keys in the .env file are not required to be changed to run the app locally. You can leave the default values copied over from sample.env as-is.

Tip

Keep in mind if you want to use services like Auth0 or Algolia, you'll have to acquire your own API keys for those services and edit the entries accordingly in the .env file.

Step 2: Install Dependencies

This step will install the dependencies required for the application to run:

pnpm install && pnpm run create:config

Step 3: Start MongoDB and Seed the Database

Before you can run the application locally, you will need to start the MongoDB service.

Note

Unless you have MongoDB running in a setup different than the default, the URL stored as the MONGOHQ_URL value in the .env file should work fine. If you are using a custom configuration, modify this value as needed.

If you followed along with the Windows 10 via WSL2 Setup Guide, then you should be able to skip this step if the MongoDB server from that guide is already running. You can confirm this by checking that you can reach http://localhost:27017 on your local machine.

Start the MongoDB server in a separate terminal:

macOS/Linux

mongod

Windows

  • On Windows, you must specify the full path to the mongod binary
"C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\3.6\bin\mongod"

Make sure to replace 3.6 with the version you have installed

Tip

You can avoid having to start MongoDB every time by installing it as a background service. You can learn more about it in their documentation for your OS

Next, let's seed the database. In this step, we run the below command that fills the MongoDB server with some initial data sets that are required by services. These include a few schemas, among other things.

pnpm run seed

Step 4: Start the freeCodeCamp Client Application and API Server

You can now start up the API server and the client applications.

pnpm run develop

This single command will fire up all the services, including the API server and the client applications available for you to work on.

Once ready, open a web browser and visit http://localhost:8000. If the app loads, sign in. Congratulations – you're all set! You now have a copy of freeCodeCamp's entire learning platform running on your local machine.

The API server serves endpoints at http://localhost:3000. The Gatsby app serves the client application at http://localhost:8000.

While you are logged in, if you visit http://localhost:3000/explorer you should see the available APIs.

Warning

Clearing your cookies or running pnpm run seed:certified-user will log you out, and you will have to sign in again.

If you have issues while installing it, check out the troubleshooting section.

Quick Commands Reference

A quick reference to the commands that you will need when working locally.

command description
pnpm install Installs / re-installs all dependencies and bootstraps the different services.
pnpm run seed Creates authorized test users and inserts them into MongoDB.
pnpm run develop Starts the freeCodeCamp API Server and Client Applications.
pnpm run clean Uninstalls all dependencies and cleans up caches.