Quickstart

Follow this guide to set up the GoBetter backend and frontend applications locally.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed on your system:

Node.js 22 LTS
pnpm 10.33.0 or Corepack
Docker (recommended for PostgreSQL and Redis)
An AI provider API key (e.g. OpenAI, OpenRouter) or access to platform models

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/dev-hari-prasad/go-better.git
cd go-better

2. Start Infrastructure (PostgreSQL & Redis)

GoBetter uses PostgreSQL for primary data storage and Redis for BullMQ task queues and user sessions.

# Start PostgreSQL (Port 5432) and Redis (Port 6379)
docker run -d --name gobetter-postgres -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres -e POSTGRES_DB=gobetter_db -p 5432:5432 postgres:16
docker run -d --name gobetter-redis -p 6379:6379 redis:7-alpine

# If running natively
brew services start postgresql@16
brew services start redis

3. Configure Environment Variables

Backend Configuration

Install the backend dependencies and generate the local environment file from the checked-in template:

cd backend
pnpm install
pnpm run copy-env

This creates backend/src/.env from backend/src/.env.example. Fill in the database, Redis, AI provider, GitHub, encryption, authentication, and email values before starting the server. The backend loads this file from src/config/env.ts.

Client Configuration

Create the client environment file from the checked-in template:

cp client/.env.example client/.env

client/.env

VITE_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000
VITE_ENABLE_PUBLIC_REPOS=true
VITE_USER_ID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001

4. Install Dependencies & Run Migrations

Install dependencies in both directories and apply the database schema using Drizzle:

# Backend setup
cd backend
pnpm run db:gen
pnpm run db:migrate

# Client setup
cd ../client
pnpm install

5. Launch the Development Servers

Start both services in development mode:

cd backend
pnpm run dev
# Server running at http://localhost:5000

cd client
pnpm run dev
# Web app running at http://localhost:3000

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser to start reviewing pull requests with GoBetter.

Production Builds

The backend build type-checks the source and creates a tree-shaken esbuild bundle at backend/dist/server.js. The frontend uses Vite production bundling with tree shaking and writes static assets to client/dist.

cd backend
pnpm run build
pnpm start

cd ../client
pnpm run build

Docker Compose

The current Compose file starts the backend service on port 5000. The frontend service is present but commented out, because the frontend can be deployed separately as an Nginx static image.

docker compose config
docker compose up --build

To build the frontend image directly:

docker compose build frontend

The backend image uses Node 22 and the frontend image uses a Node 22 build stage with Nginx as the runtime server.

Get Started

Configuration

Architecture & Workflows

AI Engine & Harness

Engineering Standards

API Reference

Prerequisites

1. Clone the Repository

2. Start Infrastructure (PostgreSQL & Redis)

3. Configure Environment Variables

Backend Configuration

Client Configuration

4. Install Dependencies & Run Migrations

5. Launch the Development Servers

Production Builds

Docker Compose

​Prerequisites

​1. Clone the Repository

​2. Start Infrastructure (PostgreSQL & Redis)

​3. Configure Environment Variables

​Backend Configuration

​Client Configuration

​4. Install Dependencies & Run Migrations

​5. Launch the Development Servers

​Production Builds

​Docker Compose

Prerequisites

1. Clone the Repository

2. Start Infrastructure (PostgreSQL & Redis)

3. Configure Environment Variables

Backend Configuration

Client Configuration

4. Install Dependencies & Run Migrations

5. Launch the Development Servers

Production Builds

Docker Compose