Getting Started

This guide walks you through setting up a development environment so you can quickly start contributing to Nezha.

First, fork the Nezha repository so you have a place to save your changes. You can then choose container-based development or local development. To help you get started faster, this guide introduces container-based development first.

Container Development Environment

To use container-based development in VS Code, install the ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers extension.

GitHub Codespaces

In your forked repository, click Code -> Codespaces -> Create codespace on master in the upper-right corner to create a cloud development environment, then wait for the environment to finish building.

You can also install the GitHub.codespaces extension in VS Code or another supported IDE and connect directly from there.

Remote Container Development

If you have a dedicated development server with Docker or a compatible runtime installed, you can create and build a remote development container over SSH and develop on that remote server. The following example uses VS Code:

1. Configure your ~/.ssh/config file on *nix or %HOMEPATH%/.ssh/config on Windows. Here is a simple example:

   Host Dev
     HostName dev.server.host
     User <your-username>
     IdentityFile <path-to-your-private-key>

2. Log in to the remote server with SSH. If the first step is configured correctly, you can test it with ssh Dev.

3. Clone your forked repository on the server: git clone <your-forked-repository-url>.

4. Open the VS Code Remote Explorer from the left sidebar. You need to install the official remote extension series.

5. Open the cloned directory in VS Code.

6. Press F1, then type and select Dev Containers: Rebuild and Reopen in Container.

7. Wait for the development environment to finish building.

Local Container Development

If Docker or a compatible runtime is installed on your local machine, you can create and build the development container locally. You may encounter network issues depending on your environment; resolve them according to your local network setup. The following example uses VS Code:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <your-forked-repository-url>

2. Open the cloned directory in VS Code.

3. Press F1, then type and select Dev Containers: Rebuild and Reopen in Container.

4. Wait for the development environment to finish building.

Start Developing

After the environment finishes its automatic setup, Nezha is ready to build by default. You can start editing freely and run .devcontainer/build.sh to compile and test your changes.

Read the Documentation

You can read the API documentation to learn which Web APIs Nezha provides.

If you use one of the container development environments above, these files have already been generated and are stored under cmd/dashboard/docs in the development environment.