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add local setup notes to contributing guide #218

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15 changes: 15 additions & 0 deletions CONTRIBUTING.md
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Expand Up @@ -67,6 +67,21 @@ Preferred types are:

Keep commit messages short and specific. Avoid vague messages like `updates`, `changes`, or `fix stuff`.

## Local Environment Setup

PiperChat has separate frontend and backend environment files. Before running the app locally:

1. Copy `server/.env.example` to `server/.env`.
2. Copy `frontend/.env.example` to `frontend/.env`.
3. Fill in the required values for `MONGO_URI`, `ACCESS_TOKEN`, `VITE_URL`, and `VITE_FRONT_END_URL`.

Optional services:

- **Email OTP**: set `MAIL_TRANSPORT`, `MAIL_USER`, and `MAIL_PASS` if you want real email delivery. For Gmail, use an App Password rather than your regular login password.
- **Avatar uploads**: set `VITE_SUPABASE_URL`, `VITE_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY`, and `VITE_SUPABASE_BUCKET` if you want profile image uploads to work. The app still runs without Supabase, but avatar uploads will be disabled.

If these values are missing, you may see login, verification, or profile-image behavior fail locally even when the UI loads correctly.

## Test Expectations

Before requesting review, run the checks that apply to your change.
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4 changes: 3 additions & 1 deletion README.md
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Expand Up @@ -61,6 +61,8 @@ PiperChat01/
- `server/` → Express + MongoDB + Socket.IO API (ESM)
- `frontend/` → Vite + Tailwind UI

For contribution workflow and local setup notes, see [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md).

## System Architecture

To help contributors understand the data flow, here is the technical visualization of how PiperChat components interact:
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -239,4 +241,4 @@ npm run test:auth:unit
- Set `NODE_ENV=production`
- Use a production MongoDB connection string
- Configure Logtail variables if production logging is needed
- Prefer `MAIL_TRANSPORT=gmail_api` for production deployments
- Prefer `MAIL_TRANSPORT=gmail_api` for production deployments