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Tahmid Ahmed edited this page Dec 23, 2025 · 17 revisions

Prerequisites

The following general software needs to be installed on your local machine:

  1. JDK 25 - We use openjdk, but feel free to use coretto or any other distribution if you would like.
  2. maven - Package manager to manage all our Java dependencies
  3. just - The runner for Justfiles, which we use to consolidate our run commands.
  4. dotenvx - Used to load environment variables from the root .env file.
  5. node - Javascript runtime to run our frontend TypeScript code.
  6. corepack - A package manager for package managers (???) to help us set a consistent pnpm version across all devs.
  7. pnpm@9 - Package manager that works faster than the default npm package manager.

MacOS

The following instructions are using homebrew (install instructions here), but it is not a requirement; you can follow along by installing all packages manually (though we would recommend against it).

  1. Install openjdk@25 (aliased to openjdk):

    brew install openjdk

  2. Install maven:

    brew install maven

  3. Install node:

    brew install node

  4. You must then setup corepack. You can follow the instructions here under Install Corepack using npm on how to install and setup corepack. Once setup, simply enable pnpm on corepack like so:

    corepack enable pnpm

  5. Install dotenvx:

    brew install dotenvx/brew/dotenvx

  6. Install just:

    brew install just

Windows

Unfortunately, I don't have a Windows machine that I develop on anymore, so I am unable to provide solid instructions for setup. However, you should be able to follow the exact same directions for MacOS but with WinGet/Scoopy or manually installing each software.

IDE Integration

VSCode

NOTE: If you open the codebloom repository in VSCode, it will prompt you to install recommended extensions to the workspace, which will include everything below.
image

You need to install the following plugins:

  1. EditorConfig - Applies consistent spacing width and type across all editors
  2. Checkstyle for Java - Java static analyzer
  3. Prettier - Javascript formatter
  4. ESLint - Javascript linter
    • Integrates with your project's ESLint configuration
  5. Babel JavaScript - Improves JSX syntax highlighting
  6. Docker - Provides Dockerfile IntelliSense
  7. DotENV - .env file syntax highlighting
  8. Prettier Typescript Errors: Simplifies complex TypeScript error messages
  9. Extension Pack for Java
    • Includes debuggers, formatters, and managers
    • Supports format on save
  10. Spring Boot Extension Pack - Additional Spring Boot-specific tooling
  11. Tailwind CSS IntelliSense - Provides intelligent suggestions for Tailwind classes
  12. XML by RedHat
    • Official XML language support and formatter
    • Important for editing Java XML files like pom.xml

.vscode/ defines some workspace defaults to help make development consistent.

IntelliJ

You need to install the following plugins:

  1. EditorConfig - Applies consistent spacing width and type across all editors
  2. Checkstyle-IDEA - Java static analyzer

The Eclipse formatter and everything else should just work out of the box. You may need to install some plugins for TypeScript support, including Prettier, ESLint, Babel, Prettier, Tailwind, and more.

Neovim

NOTE: This may vary greatly by the current configuration of Neovim, but the following setup should work out the box using LazyVim.

You need to install the following plugins:

  1. nvim-jdtls - LSP for Java in Neovim (Install as a plugin, not Mason)
    • nvim-jdtls may require some additional configuration. If it helps, my current config can be found here
  2. none-ls - Provide a code bridge to formatting & LSP diagonostics. (Specifically used for Checkstyle formatting)
  3. vtsls - LSP for TypeScript in Neovim (can install through Mason)
  4. eslint-lsp - LSP Protocol for ESLint (can install through Mason)
  5. tailwindcss-language-server - LSP for Tailwind (can install through Mason)
  6. json-lsp - (Optional) LSP for JSON (can install through Mason)
  7. dockerfile-language-server - (Optional) LSP for Dockerfile (can install through Mason)

There is a .lazy.lua file in the root directory that will apply some default, but only for LazyVim. Of course, you can replicate the behavior in your own distribution (and create a pull request with the changes).

Database

Postgres

We currently use Postgres 16 locally to match production (but some members of the team have used 17 locally with no issues).

Installation

You can feel free to download Postgres however you want, but the way we have all chose to set it up is with Postgres.app on MacOS.

MacOS + Postgres.app

  1. Install postgresapp through homebrew (or the website if you would prefer to do so)

    brew install --cask postgres-unofficial

  2. Open Postgres.app and click "Initialize" to create a new server. You are now ready to go!

    • For Postgres.app instances, the password you enter to access the database doesn't matter
    • On first connection attempt, Postgres.app will prompt you to trust the specific program
    • After allowing access once, it won't ask again for that program

  3. Configure your $PATH to use the included command line tools (optional):

    sudo mkdir -p /etc/paths.d &&
echo /Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/latest/bin | sudo tee /etc/paths.d/postgresapp

Other

You may install it with Docker, or directly through postgresql.com if you would like. While there are no directions I can directly offer to you, there are some very good tutorials online on how to do so.

If you would like to use Docker, I can refer you to Patina's documentation for setting up Docker which you can find here

Viewer

You can feel free to use any viewer you want, but we would recommend DataGrip which is free for all non-commercial use.

Redis

We currently use Redis 7 in production, but feel free to use a different version (although you may run into some compatibility issues).

Installation

You can feel free to download Redis however you want, but the way we have all chose to set it up is with Homebrew.

Homebrew

  1. Install redis through homebrew

    brew install redis

  2. To launch the redis server, you can simply run the following command to run the server:

    redis-server

    NOTE: This will launch the server in the foreground (when the terminal is closed, the Redis server will be closed).

    If you would like to automatically launch the server in the background (as soon as your machine is on and you are logged in), you can run this command:

     brew services start redis

  3. The default Redis URI for Homebrew installations is simply:

    redis://localhost:6379/0

    NOTE: By default, Redis has 16 databases (the number after the slash) from 0-15.

Viewer

You can feel free to use any viewer you want, but we would recommend DataGrip which is free for all non-commercial use.

Secrets

You can speed up the setup process by making a copy of .env.example to .env. You will also find explanations and documentation about how to source the value for each key.

If there is a key specific to an environment (such as CI or staging environment), please consult the tech docs within the CI group.

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