Development Environment Setup

This guide walks you through setting up a local development environment for the RocketRide Engine.

Prerequisites

Tool	Version	Notes
Node.js	18+	Runtime for the build system and TypeScript clients
pnpm	8+	Package manager (npm install -g pnpm)
Python	3.10+	Required for pipeline nodes, AI modules, and the Python SDK
C++ toolchain	C++17-capable	Required only when building the engine from source (see below)
Git	2.x	Source control

C++ toolchain details (engine builds only)

• macOS -- Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)
• Linux -- GCC 10+ or Clang 13+ (sudo apt install build-essential cmake)
• Windows -- Visual Studio 2019+ with the "Desktop development with C++" workload

Most contributors do not need the C++ toolchain. The builder downloads a pre-built engine binary by default.

Clone and Install

git clone https://github.com/rocketride-org/rocketride-server.git
cd rocketride-server
pnpm install

Environment Configuration

If the repository contains a .env.template or .env.example file, copy it:

cp .env.template .env   # or .env.example

Edit .env and fill in the values relevant to your setup (API keys, model endpoints, etc.). If no template exists, you can skip this step -- most functionality works with defaults.

Building

The project uses a unified build system. See README-builder.md for full details.

# Show all available commands
./builder --help

# Full project build (downloads pre-built engine + all modules)
./builder build

# Build only the C++ engine
./builder server:build

# Build specific modules
./builder nodes:build
./builder vscode:build
./builder client-typescript:build client-python:build

Build output

Directory	Contents
build/	Temporary build artifacts
dist/	Final distributable outputs
dist/server/	Engine executable and runtime
dist/clients/	Client library packages
dist/vscode/	VS Code extension (.vsix)

Running

Start the server

After building, the engine executable is located in dist/server/. Run it directly:

./dist/server/engine ai/eaas.py

Connect the VS Code extension

1. Build the extension: ./builder vscode:build
2. Install the generated .vsix from dist/vscode/ in VS Code
3. Click the RocketRide icon in the sidebar and connect to your running server

For VS Code extension development details, see README-vscode.md.

Testing

# Run all tests
./builder test

# C++ engine tests only
./builder server:test

# Python tests only (nodes, AI, clients)
./builder nodes:test
./builder ai:test
./builder client-python:test

# TypeScript tests only
./builder client-typescript:test

# Other module tests
./builder client-mcp:test

For information on writing and running node-level tests, see README-node-testing.md.

Further Reading

• Build System -- declarative build system reference
• Engine Reference -- C++ engine architecture, CLI options, task types
• Pipeline Nodes -- writing and extending pipeline nodes
• VS Code Extension -- extension development
• Pre-commit Hooks -- code quality automation
• Contributing Guide -- contribution workflow and code style