Setting Up Your Local Environment

This guide walks you through setting up a complete development environment for EndToEndLabCR projects. It takes about 1–2 hours depending on your internet speed and whether you already have some of these tools installed.

You don't need everything. Pick the tools that match the stack you plan to contribute to. A Python contributor doesn't need Java, and a frontend contributor doesn't need Maven.

Prefer detailed IDE guides? See VS Code setup, PyCharm setup, and Homebrew install.

Prerequisites

• Administrative access to your machine
• A stable internet connection
• A GitHub account

Step 1: Install a Package Manager

macOS — Homebrew

See our dedicated Homebrew install guide. Quick version:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> ~/.zprofile
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

Windows — Chocolatey

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Core Tools

Install only what you need for the stacks you'll work with.

Recommended Baseline (everyone)

Tool	macOS	Windows	Linux
Git	brew install git	choco install git	sudo apt install -y git
Node	brew install node	choco install nodejs	See NodeSource below
Docker	brew install --cask docker	Docker Desktop	See Docker section below

Python Stack

# macOS
brew install python@3.11

# Windows
choco install python -y

# Linux
sudo apt install -y python3 python3-pip python3-venv

Use venv + pip for dependency management:

# Create and activate a virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv

# macOS/Linux
source venv/bin/activate

# Windows
venv\Scripts\activate

# Install project dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

Java / Spring Boot Stack

# macOS
brew install java maven

# Windows
choco install java maven -y

# Linux
sudo apt install -y openjdk-17-jdk maven

Database Tools

# PostgreSQL
# macOS:  brew install postgresql
# Windows: choco install postgresql
# Linux:  sudo apt install -y postgresql postgresql-contrib

# Redis
# macOS:  brew install redis
# Windows: choco install redis-64
# Linux:  sudo apt install -y redis-server

Step 3: Configure Git

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your.email@example.com"
git config --global init.defaultBranch main

# Useful aliases
git config --global alias.st status
git config --global alias.lg "log --oneline --graph --decorate"

Step 4: Set Up Your IDE

We support VS Code and IntelliJ / PyCharm. See our dedicated guides:

• VS Code setup
• PyCharm setup

VS Code Quick Setup

code --install-extension ms-python.python
code --install-extension esbenp.prettier-vscode
code --install-extension redhat.vscode-yaml
code --install-extension GitHub.copilot

Create .vscode/settings.json in your workspace:

{
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "editor.codeActionsOnSave": {
    "source.organizeImports": true
  },
  "editor.rulers": [80, 120],
  "files.trimTrailingWhitespace": true,
  "files.insertFinalNewline": true
}

Step 5: Docker

Docker is useful for running databases and services without installing them natively.

1. Download Docker Desktop (macOS/Windows) or follow the Docker Engine install for Linux
2. Start Docker Desktop
3. Verify the installation:

docker --version
docker run hello-world

Pull base images we use across projects:

docker pull node:18-alpine
docker pull python:3.11-slim
docker pull postgres:14
docker pull redis:7-alpine

Step 6: Database Quick Start

PostgreSQL

# Start the service
# macOS:  brew services start postgresql
# Linux:  sudo systemctl start postgresql && sudo systemctl enable postgresql

# Create a development database
createdb devdb

# Connect and create a dev user
psql postgres

CREATE USER devuser WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'devpassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE devdb TO devuser;
ALTER USER devuser CREATEDB;
\q

Redis

# macOS:  brew services start redis
# Linux:  sudo systemctl start redis-server && sudo systemctl enable redis-server

# Test
redis-cli ping   # should return PONG

Step 7: Verify Everything

echo "=== Tool Versions ==="
git --version
node --version
npm --version
python3 --version
docker --version

# Optional — if you installed them
java -version 2>&1 || echo "Java not installed"
mvn --version 2>&1 || echo "Maven not installed"
psql --version 2>&1 || echo "PostgreSQL not installed"
redis-cli --version 2>&1 || echo "Redis not installed"

Test Your Setup

Clone one of our template repos and run it locally:

git clone https://github.com/EndToEndLabCR/template-api-python.git
cd template-api-python
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # or venv\Scripts\activate on Windows
pip install -r requirements.txt
uvicorn app.main:app --reload

In another terminal:

curl http://localhost:8000/health

If you get a healthy response, you're ready to go.

Troubleshooting

Port Conflicts

# Check what's using common ports
lsof -i :3000   # React dev server
lsof -i :8000   # FastAPI / Django
lsof -i :8080   # Spring Boot
lsof -i :5432   # PostgreSQL
lsof -i :6379   # Redis

# Kill a process if needed
kill -9 <PID>

Docker Permission Issues (Linux)

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
# Log out and log back in

PATH Issues

echo $PATH
# Reload your shell
source ~/.zshrc   # or ~/.bashrc

See our FAQ & Troubleshooting section for more common issues.

Next Steps

1. Follow the Onboarding Guide if you haven't already
2. Read the Git & GitHub Guide to learn our workflow
3. Clone a project repo and make your first contribution
4. Join the Discord community and say hello

Keeping Things Fresh

# macOS
brew update && brew upgrade

# Linux
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

# Python (upgrade dependencies)
pip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt