Development setup

Requirements

Node.js 24.15 or newer. Node.js 22.22.2 or newer within the 22.x line also works.

Nothing else is required. Docker is optional and is never a production dependency.

With a local Node.js

npm install

npm run dev

With Docker Desktop

A persistent development service with hot reload, at http://127.0.0.1:4173:

npm run docker:up

npm run docker:logs

npm run docker:down

The service restarts with Docker Desktop until you stop it explicitly. Set ALABASTER_PORT before starting Compose to use another host port. Linux dependencies live in a named volume and refresh when package-lock.json changes.

It talks to a real printer

The development service is usually pointed at a real machine. Heaters heat and motors move. Verify with reads and the interface's own state where you can. Be deliberate about any mutating G-code you send.

The documentation site

This site is built with VitePress from website/:

npm run docs:dev

npm run docs:build

It is published to GitHub Pages from main. Pull requests build it without deploying.

Before opening a pull request

npm run check

That runs formatting, linting, type-checking, every test, and the production build. While iterating, run a single spec instead:

npx vitest run src/stores/__tests__/telemetry.spec.ts

The stack

Layer	Choice
Framework	Vue 3, Composition API, <script setup lang="ts">
Build	Vite
State	Pinia, split by domain
Routing	Vue Router, hash history
i18n	Vue I18n, English as the typed source locale
Styling	Tailwind CSS over semantic design tokens
Testing	Vitest and Vue Test Utils

Alabaster keeps transport code free of Vue and Pinia so it can be unit tested without mounting anything.

Where the rules live

Alabaster keeps its own internal architecture decision records and design contracts. They are not published here and are not part of this repository's public checkout. They are binding on every change: code and documents must agree.

See Contributing for which areas they govern and how to ask before designing a change that touches one.