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docs: update Contributions documentation for clarity and consistency #41651

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docs: update ClientSetup and ServerSetup documentation for clarity an…
sebastianiv21 Mar 24, 2026
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Merge branch 'release' into 410-contribution-docs-command-context
sebastianiv21 Mar 24, 2026
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185 changes: 78 additions & 107 deletions contributions/ClientSetup.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -9,92 +9,67 @@ Appsmith's client (UI/frontend) uses the ReactJS library and Typescript. The app
On your development machine, please ensure that:

1. You have `docker` installed in your system. If not, please visit: [https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/](https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/)
1. You have `mkcert` installed. Please visit: [https://github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert#installation](https://github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert#installation) for details.

- For `mkcert` to work with Firefox, you may need to install the `nss` utility. Details are in the link above.
- On Linux, you can easily install `mkcert` using the following command

```
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/FiloSottile/mkcert/releases/latest \
| grep "browser_download_url.*linux-amd64" \
| cut -d : -f 2,3 | tr -d \" \
| wget -i - -O mkcert
chmod +x mkcert
sudo mv mkcert /usr/local/bin
```

1. You have `envsubst` installed. Use `brew install gettext` on MacOS. Linux machines usually have this installed.
1. You have cloned the repo in your local machine.
1. You have yarn installed as a global npm package, i.e. `npm install -g yarn`.
1. <b>Create local HTTPS certificates</b>

1. Run the following command from the project root.

```bash
cd app/client/docker && mkcert -install && mkcert "*.appsmith.com" && cd ../../..
2. You have `mkcert` installed. Please visit: [https://github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert#installation](https://github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert#installation) for details.
- For `mkcert` to work with Firefox, you may need to install the `nss` utility. Details are in the link above.
- On Linux, you can easily install `mkcert` using the following command
```
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/FiloSottile/mkcert/releases/latest \
| grep "browser_download_url.*linux-amd64" \
| cut -d : -f 2,3 | tr -d \" \
| wget -i - -O mkcert
chmod +x mkcert
sudo mv mkcert /usr/local/bin
```
3. You have `envsubst` installed. Use `brew install gettext` on MacOS. Linux machines usually have this installed.
4. You have cloned the repo in your local machine.
5. You have yarn installed as a global npm package, i.e. `npm install -g yarn`.
6. **Create local HTTPS certificates**
1. Run from repo root:
```bash
cd app/client/docker && mkcert -install && mkcert "*.appsmith.com" && cd ../../..
```
This command will create 2 files in the `docker/` directory:
- `_wildcard.appsmith.com-key.pem`
- `_wildcard.appsmith.com.pem`
2. Add the domain `dev.appsmith.com` to `/etc/hosts`.
```bash
echo "127.0.0.1 dev.appsmith.com" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts
```
Note:
- Please be careful when copying the above string as space between the IP and the string goes missing sometimes.
- Please check that the string is copied properly
```

This command will create 2 files in the `docker/` directory:

- `_wildcard.appsmith.com-key.pem`
- `_wildcard.appsmith.com.pem`

1. Add the domain `dev.appsmith.com` to `/etc/hosts`.

```bash
echo "127.0.0.1 dev.appsmith.com" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts
cat /etc/hosts | grep appsmith
```

Note:

- Please be careful when copying the above string as space between the IP and the string goes missing sometimes.
- Please check that the string is copied properly

```
cat /etc/hosts | grep appsmith
```

1. Run cmd: `cp .env.example .env`
1. Run Backend server

- The backend server can be run in two ways
1. Use Appsmith's staging server hosted at `https://release.app.appsmith.com` for development purposes. <b>(Recommended)</b>
1. Run the backend server locally. To setup the backend server locally, refer [here](#running-backend-locally).
- Run the script `start-https.sh` to start the nginx container that will proxy the frontend requests to the backend server.

- Pass the server name as an argument to this command to use that server as backend.

```bash
cd app/client
./start-https.sh https://release.app.appsmith.com // uses Appsmith's staging backend server as backend for your local frontend code
```

- If you want to use the backend server running on your local, you do not need to pass a parameter when running `start-https.sh`.
7. Run from repo root: `cp .env.example .env`
8. Run Backend server
- The backend server can be run in two ways
1. Use Appsmith's staging server hosted at `https://release.app.appsmith.com` for development purposes. **(Recommended)**
2. Run the backend server locally. To setup the backend server locally, refer [here](#running-backend-locally).
- Run the script `start-https.sh` to start the nginx container that will proxy the frontend requests to the backend server.
- Pass the server name as an argument to this command to use that server as backend (run from repo root):
```bash
cd app/client
./start-https.sh https://release.app.appsmith.com // uses Appsmith's staging backend server as backend for your local frontend code
```
If you want to use the backend server running on your local, you do not need to pass a parameter when running `start-https.sh`.

### Steps to build & run the code:

1. Run `yarn install`.

Note:

- On the Ubuntu Linux platform, please run the following cmd before step 2 below:

```
echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p
```

1. Run `yarn start`.

- 🎉 Your Appsmith client is now running on https://dev.appsmith.com.
- <b>This URL must be opened with https and not have port 3000 in it.</b>

1. If yarn start throws mismatch node version error

- This error occurs because the node version is not compatible with the app environment. In this case, Node version manager can be used, allowing multiple node versions in different projects.
- Check below for installation and usage details:

1. Install a node version manager. For eg: check [nvm](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm) or [fnm](https://github.com/Schniz/fnm).
1. In the project's root, run `nvm use 20.11.1` or `fnm use 20.11.1`.
1. Run from `app/client`: `yarn install`.
Note:
- On the Ubuntu Linux platform, please run the following cmd before step 2 below:
```
echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p
```
2. Run from `app/client`: `yarn start`.
- 🎉 Your Appsmith client is now running on [https://dev.appsmith.com](https://dev.appsmith.com).
- **This URL must be opened with https and not have port 3000 in it.**
3. If yarn start throws mismatch node version error
- This error occurs because the node version is not compatible with the app environment. In this case, Node version manager can be used, allowing multiple node versions in different projects.
- Check below for installation and usage details:
1. Install a node version manager. For eg: check [nvm](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm) or [fnm](https://github.com/Schniz/fnm).
2. Run from `app/client`: `nvm use 20.11.1` or `fnm use 20.11.1`.

### Running Tests on Client

Expand All @@ -107,7 +82,7 @@ On your development machine, please ensure that:

##### Setup Cypress configurations

To setup the configurations for running integration tests via Cypress, use these commands below,
To setup the configurations for running integration tests via Cypress, use these commands below (run from repo root):

```bash
cd app/client/cypress/scripts
Expand All @@ -119,35 +94,37 @@ To setup the configurations for running integration tests via Cypress, use these
`Do you wish to continue without setting up the local server with docker? (yes/no):`

**Options:**
- **`no`:** Selecting "no" will trigger the setup of a local server using Docker with the `appsmith-ce:release` image.
- **`yes`:** Selecting "yes" will skip the local server setup process.

- **no:** Selecting "no" will trigger the setup of a local server using Docker with the `appsmith-ce:release` image.
- **yes:** Selecting "yes" will skip the local server setup process.

**Prompt:**
`https://dev.appsmith.com is not accessible. Do you wish to continue without setting it up? (yes/no):`

**Options:**
- **`no`:** Simply close the process.
- **`yes`:** Continue on the process for next stage

- **no:** Simply close the process.
- **yes:** Continue on the process for next stage

**Prompt:**
`TED (TestEventDriver) is not running. Do you want to pull & run the latest Docker container for TED (TestEventDriver)? (yes/no):`

**Options:**
- **`no`:** It will not create TED setup in local machine.
- **`yes`:** Download the TED image and run the image for test purposes.

- **no:** It will not create TED setup in local machine.
- **yes:** Download the TED image and run the image for test purposes.

##### Running Cypress tests locally

To run a specific test file in headless fashion, use the following command:
To run a specific test file in headless fashion, use the following command (run from repo root):

```bash
cd app/client/
yarn install
npx cypress run --spec <spec path> --browser chrome
```

To open Cypress in the browser and run the tests visually
To open Cypress in the browser and run the tests visually (run from repo root):

```bash
cd app/client/
Expand All @@ -161,7 +138,7 @@ To open Cypress in the browser and run the tests visually

1. Running the server from source code.
- Refer to [documentation](https://github.com/appsmithorg/appsmith/blob/release/contributions/ServerSetup.md) for setting up backend to do this.
1. Running the server from a docker image. There are two ways to get a backend docker image
2. Running the server from a docker image. There are two ways to get a backend docker image

1. Pull latest release branch docker image from Appsmith's public docker hub account.

Expand All @@ -183,7 +160,7 @@ To open Cypress in the browser and run the tests visually

```

1. Create docker image from local source code
2. Create docker image from local source code

```
cd ~/appsmith
Expand All @@ -201,15 +178,12 @@ To open Cypress in the browser and run the tests visually

### Running Unit Tests

- To run the Jest unit tests, run:

- To run the Jest unit tests, run from repo root:
```bash
cd app/client
yarn run test:unit
```

- To run a single jest test,

- To run a single jest test, run from repo root:
```bash
cd app/client

Expand All @@ -220,8 +194,7 @@ To open Cypress in the browser and run the tests visually

yarn jest src/widgets/<filepath>/<filename>.test.ts --silent=false
```

- To run a single jest test in watch mode,
- To run a single jest test in watch mode, run from `app/client`:
```bash
npx jest --watch <file_path/file_name>
```
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -257,7 +230,6 @@ After this, you can continue Setting up from [here](#pre-requisites).
#### I am on WSL and can't reach dev.appsmith.com

- You will need to add `dev.appsmith.com` to Windows' `C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts` instead of `/etc/hosts`. Alternately, you can install a desktop environment in WSL to open `dev.appsmith.com` from a browser in WSL.

```
127.0.0.1 dev.appsmith.com
```
Expand All @@ -268,18 +240,17 @@ After this, you can continue Setting up from [here](#pre-requisites).

- You can check logs with `docker logs wildcard-nginx`.
- If you see `Address already in use` errors, look for the service running on port 80 and 443 with `lsof -i tcp:80,443 | grep LISTEN` and stop the process.

**Example**: Some Linux distros have `apache2` listening on 80. Stop them with `sudo systemctl stop apache2`

#### I want to add dev.appsmith.com conf to my local Nginx without Docker.

1. Copy `app/client/docker/templates/nginx-app.conf.template` over to your nginx sites directory.
1. You can remove or replace values for all the `sub_filter`. None of those properties are required.
1. Change `proxy_pass` value for client from `__APPSMITH_CLIENT_PROXY_PASS__` to `http://localhost:3000`
1. Replace all occurrences of `__APPSMITH_SERVER_PROXY_PASS__` with `http://localhost:8080` (or the server you want to point to)
1. Generate the certificates manually via `mkcert`.
1. Change the value of the certificate location for keys `ssl_certificate` & `ssl_certificate_key` to the place where these certificates were generated.
1. Reload nginx! :tada:
2. You can remove or replace values for all the `sub_filter`. None of those properties are required.
3. Change `proxy_pass` value for client from `__APPSMITH_CLIENT_PROXY_PASS__` to `http://localhost:3000`
4. Replace all occurrences of `__APPSMITH_SERVER_PROXY_PASS__` with `http://localhost:8080` (or the server you want to point to)
5. Generate the certificates manually via `mkcert`.
6. Change the value of the certificate location for keys `ssl_certificate` & `ssl_certificate_key` to the place where these certificates were generated.
7. Reload nginx! :tada:

## I still need help!

Expand Down
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