SlackData

SlackData is a database of slackline gear, inspired by SlackDB.

SlackData is open source, with an open API to allow other tools to use the database.

Stack: Python / FastAPI / SQLModel / SQLite backend + React / TypeScript / Vite frontend.

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Quick start (full local stack)

The frontend reads its data from the backend API, so the backend must be running or the listing pages come up empty. Start both:

# 1. Backend — http://127.0.0.1:8000
uv sync                          # creates .venv with all deps
source .venv/bin/activate
cd slack_data
fastapi dev main.py              # seeds database.db on first run

# 2. Frontend — http://localhost:5173 (in a second terminal)
cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173. The backend allows CORS from the Vite dev server (localhost:5173 / 127.0.0.1:5173); override the API URL with VITE_API_URL if you run the backend elsewhere.

Troubleshooting: frontend loads but shows no data

The frontend is almost never the cause — check the backend first:

curl http://localhost:8000/webbing/?limit=1

• HTTP 500 on every endpoint — the backend process is unhealthy. The most common cause is a broken environment (e.g. a corrupt sniffio/anyio install breaks every request with a 500). Recreate the env cleanly with uv sync and run the backend from .venv, or reinstall the offending package (pip install --force-reinstall sniffio) and restart the server — fastapi dev reloads on source edits, not on dependency changes.
• Connection refused — the backend isn't running, or not on port 8000.
• Empty array [] — the DB seeded with no rows; delete slack_data/database.db and restart to re-seed from the root *.json files.

Note: uv creates .venv; the pip path below creates venv. Don't mix them — activate and run the backend from whichever one you installed into.

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Frontend

A React + TypeScript + Vite app, built TDD against a red-first Cypress E2E suite that runs on the real backend. Nav, gear listing, and cards are in place; filters, detail, compare, and manufacturers are in progress.

Build status and the phase-by-phase roadmap live in PLAN.md; the visual/UX spec is in DESIGN.md.

Setup

cd frontend
npm install

Run

npm run dev

Opens at http://localhost:5173.

Tests (Cypress E2E)

Tests run against the real backend, so the backend must be running on port 8000 before launching Cypress.

# Open Cypress interactively
npm run cypress:open

# Run headlessly
npm run cypress:run

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Backend

Setup

with uv:

uv sync
source .venv/bin/activate

with pip:

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install '-e.[dev]'

Run

cd slack_datacd slack_data
fastapi dev main.py

API runs at http://127.0.0.1:8000. Append /docs for the interactive OpenAPI explorer.

1. Activate environment (if not already activated)
   • source venv/bin/activate
2. Navigate to backend folder
   • cd slack_data
3. Run server
   • fastapi dev main.py
4. Open browser and go to URL printed in terminal
   • Append /docs to see the interactive API docs
   • Most likely [http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs]

Testing

The test suite covers all active gear types with CRUD, pagination, and loader logic tests.

Setup

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate       # Linux/Mac
# .venv\Scripts\activate        # Windows
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Or with uv:

uv sync

Running

pytest