Developer Setup

This is a guide on setting up your local environment for Flaggi development, including running the server and client, using the dev container, and building from source.

Requirements

Java 21 — full JDK, not just a JRE
Gradle — use the included ./gradlew wrapper
Node.js + npm — needed for the dev console and the docs site

Recommended workflow: dev console

The dev console is an Electron app that launches the server and two clients, then shows the logs and live game state side by side.

cd dev-console
npm install
npm start

Use the toolbar buttons to:

Rebuild the server and client artifacts
Stop all running processes
Clear logs between test runs

This is the fastest way to test multiplayer behavior without manually juggling terminals.

Manual workflow

If you prefer separate processes, use the helper script from the repository root.

./scripts/run.sh server

./scripts/run.sh client

The script builds the shadow JAR automatically before launching. Useful flags:

Flag	Effect
`-r`, `--rebuild`	Clear the server temp directory before launching
`--skip-build`	Skip the Gradle build step and use the existing JAR
`-h`, `--help`	Show usage information

Dev container

A Docker-based dev environment lives in .devcontainer/.

It includes:

OpenJDK 21
Protobuf compiler
Gradle
Common VS Code extensions for Java and formatting

Open the repository in VS Code and run Dev Containers: Reopen in Container.

Compile-only checks

For fast verification without launching the game:

./gradlew :shared:compileJava :client:compileJava :server:compileJava

To build everything:

./gradlew build

To build just the runnable jars:

./gradlew shadowJar

The runnable artifacts are written to each module’s build/libs/ directory.

Docs website

The docs site itself lives in website/ and runs as a separate Astro app.

cd website
npm install
npm run dev

Packaging dependencies

If you plan to package native installers, install these optional tools:

create-dmg on macOS
WiX 3 on Windows