Quick Start

Get the CodeArcade Community Engine running locally in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed on your machine:

• Docker  & Docker Compose
• Node.js 18+  (optional if running everything via Docker)

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/codearcade-io/community
cd community

2. Environment Setup

Copy the example environment variables to a new .env file:

cp .env.example .env

A minimal .env file for local development requires database and caching endpoints:

# Database
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/community"

# Redis
REDIS_URL="redis://localhost:6379"

# Authentication (Better-Auth)
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET="your-super-secret-key"
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL="http://localhost:3000"

3. Start Infrastructure

We provide a docker-compose.yml that automatically spins up PostgreSQL and Redis for you.

docker-compose up -d

4. Run the Application

Install the dependencies, push the database schema, and start the development server:

npm install
npx prisma db push
npm run dev

The application is now running at http://localhost:3000 .

Next Steps

• Dive into the Architecture Overview to understand how the system is built.
• Refer to the full Installation Guide for advanced configurations or cloud deployments.