> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bigcapital.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Development

> Thank you for considering contributing to our project! We appreciate your interest and welcome any contributions you may have. 

Please read through this document before submitting any issues or pull requests to ensure we have all the necessary information to effectively respond to your bug report or contribution.

## Contributing Guidelines

#### For Pull Request(s)

Contributions via pull requests are much appreciated. Once the approach is agreed upon ✅, make your changes and open a Pull Request(s). Before sending us a pull request, please ensure that,

* Fork the repo on GitHub, clone it on your machine.
* Create a branch with your changes.
* You are working against the latest source on the `develop` branch.
* Modify the source; please focus only on the specific change.
* Ensure local tests pass.
* Commit to your fork using clear commit messages.
* Send us a pull request.
* Pay attention to any automated CI failures reported in the pull request.
* Stay involved in the conversation

<Info>
  Please note: If you want to work on an issue, please ask the maintainers to
  assign the issue to you before starting work on it. This would help us
  understand who is working on an issue and prevent duplicate work. 🙏🏻
</Info>

***

## Local Setup Prerequisites

* The application currently supports **Node.js v18.x**.
* `pnpm` packages manager, (from pnpm [guide](https://pnpm.io/installation) pick any installation method).

## Contribute to Backend

* Clone the `bigcapital` repository and `cd` into `bigcapital` directory.
* Create `.env` file by copying `.env.example` file to `.env`. (The `.env.example` file has all the necessary values of variables to start development directly).

```bash theme={null}
cp .env.example .env
```

* Install all npm dependencies of the monorepo, you don't have to change directory to the `backend` package. just hit the command on root directory and it will install dependencies of all packages.

```bash theme={null}
pnpm install
```

* Run all required docker containers in the development, we already configured all containers under `docker-compose.yml`.

```bash theme={null}
docker-compose up -d
```

Wait some seconds, and hit `docker-compose ps` and you should see the same result below.

```
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE              COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS        PORTS                               NAMES
d974edfab9df   bigcapital-mysql   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   7 seconds ago   Up 1 second   0.0.0.0:3306->3306/tcp, 33060/tcp   bigcapital-mysql-1
cefa73fe2881   bigcapital-redis   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   7 seconds ago   Up 1 second   6379/tcp                            bigcapital-redis-1
1ea059198cb4   bigcapital-mongo   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   7 seconds ago   Up 1 second   0.0.0.0:27017->27017/tcp            bigcapital-mongo-1
```

* There're some CLI commands we should run before running the server like databaase migration, so we need to build the `server` app first.

```bash theme={null}
pnpm run build:server
```

* Run the database migration for system database.

```bash theme={null}
node packages/server/build/commands.js system:migrate:latest
```

And you should get something like that.

```bash theme={null}
Batch 1 run: 6 migrations
```

* Next, start the webapp application.

```bash theme={null}
pnpm run dev:server
```

***

## Contribute to Frontend

* Clone the `bigcapital` repository and cd into `bigcapital` directory.

```
git clone https://github.com/bigcapital/bigcapital.git && cd bigcaptial
```

* Install all npm dependencies of the monorepo, you don't have to change directory to the `frontend` package. just hit that command and will install all packages across all application.

```bash theme={null}
pnpm install
```

* Next, start the webapp application.

```bash theme={null}
pnpm run dev:webapp
```

***

## Code Review

We welcome constructive criticism and feedback on code submitted by contributors. All feedback should be constructive and respectful, and should focus on the code rather than the contributor. Code review may include suggestions for improvement or changes to the code.

***

## Other Ways to Contribute

There are many other ways to get involved with the community and to participate in this project:

* Use the product, submitting GitHub issues when a problem is found.
* Help code review pull requests and participate in issue threads.
* Submit a new feature request as an issue.
* Help answer questions on forums such as Bigcapital Community Discord Channel.
* Tell others about the project on Twitter, your blog, etc.

Again, Feel free to ping us on [`#contributing`](https://discord.com/invite/c8nPBJafeb) on our Discord community if you need any help on this :)

Thank You!