Introduction

SchoolAccount-Connect is an ASP.NET Core web application that provides the public-facing frontend for the DfE School Account service. It handles user authentication via DfE Sign In and acts as the primary entry point for schools interacting with the platform.

Getting Started

Follow these steps to start the web application locally.

1. Install prerequisites — see Prerequisites for detailed instructions:

   • Docker Desktop
   • Rider or Visual Studio Code
   • .NET 10 SDK
   • Related repositories checked out alongside this one

2. Run the appropriate initialization script for your OS. This installs dotnet tools, generates SSL certificates, downloads the DfE VPN root CA, and sets up your DEV_PAT:

   macOS / Linux	Windows PowerShell
   ./init.sh	.\init.ps1

   You will be prompted for a Personal Access Token (PAT) if DEV_PAT is not already set in your environment. The script will persist it to your shell profile for future sessions. See Personal Access Token for instructions on generating one.

3. Starting the app in Rider:

   • Open the project in Rider

   • Use Rider's run configurations from the toolbar

     Run Configuration	Type	Outcome
     	Compound	Starts the Connect app and its direct dependencies (database, migrations, app-config-emulator, seq) via Docker Compose and launches a browser
     	Compound	Starts all services including TSI Frontend, TSI Backend, TSI Domain Service, and SchoolAccount Frontend via Docker Compose and launches a browser
     	Dotnet	Runs the app directly using dotnet run against an https launch profile, no dependencies are started

4. Once running, the application is available at https://localhost:7034/

5. Debugging guidance:

   • Set breakpoints in your C# files under src/SchoolAccount.Web.Connect any of the above run configurations will automatically start the app with debugging enabled.
   • Structured logs are available in Seq at http://localhost:5341 when running via Compound run configurations.

Build and Test

Use the .NET CLI to build or test the application.

• To build locally:

  dotnet build

• To run all tests:

  dotnet test

• To run a specific test project:

  dotnet test tests/SchoolAccount.Application.UnitTests