court-pilot/docs/development.md

Development Guide

Prerequisites

Web development

• NVM
• Node.js lts/jod (at least Node.js 22.22.3), matching .nvmrc and the release workflow
• npm
• Ionic CLI available as ionic

Shell and NVM setup

The command examples in this repository target Bash on Linux, macOS, or Windows WSL. If your usual shell is fish, start bash before using them. nvm.fish is a separate implementation; its functions are unavailable in Bash.

Check for the Bash NVM installation:

test -s "${NVM_DIR:-$HOME/.nvm}/nvm.sh"

If this check fails, agents must ask the user for permission before installing NVM. After approval, follow the official NVM installation instructions. Use the default ~/.nvm location, or set NVM_DIR to your existing Bash NVM installation. Keep an existing fish installation separate.

After NVM is installed, install the required Node release from the project root:

export NVM_DIR="${NVM_DIR:-$HOME/.nvm}"
. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
nvm install lts/jod

Every npm command block below explicitly loads NVM and selects lts/jod. This also works in noninteractive Bash sessions that do not load .bashrc. Run each block from the project root. Stop if loading NVM or selecting Node fails; do not fall back to the system Node version.

Angular 22 requires TypeScript 6.0 and Node.js 22.22.3 or newer on the Node.js 22 line. If your installed lts/jod is older, run nvm install lts/jod after loading Bash NVM.

Install exact project dependencies with:

export NVM_DIR="${NVM_DIR:-$HOME/.nvm}"
. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
nvm use lts/jod && npm ci

If needed, install Ionic CLI globally:

export NVM_DIR="${NVM_DIR:-$HOME/.nvm}"
. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
nvm use lts/jod && npm install --global @ionic/cli

The committed .nvmrc uses the named lts/jod alias. Do not replace it with another Node release or add .tool-versions unless the team intentionally changes version-management tools.

Desktop development

Install Rust stable and the Tauri 2 prerequisites for your operating system. src-tauri/Cargo.toml declares Rust 1.77.2 as the minimum supported Rust version.

Web workflow

Start the Ionic development server:

export NVM_DIR="${NVM_DIR:-$HOME/.nvm}"
. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
nvm use lts/jod && npm start

Build the Angular application:

export NVM_DIR="${NVM_DIR:-$HOME/.nvm}"
. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
nvm use lts/jod && npm run build

The production web output is generated under www/. Do not edit that directory manually.

Code formatting

Use an editor Prettier plugin for files you change. The root .prettierrc is the repository's shared formatting configuration and is discovered automatically by compatible plugins.

Its main rules are:

• 80-character print width
• two spaces, not tabs
• semicolons
• single quotes
• no trailing commas
• opening brackets kept on the same line where supported

For VS Code, install the recommended esbenp.prettier-vscode extension, select Prettier as the formatter, and use Format Document or format-on-save. Do not introduce personal overrides that conflict with .prettierrc, and do not reformat unrelated files during a focused change.

Prettier is currently an editor workflow; the repository does not declare a Prettier npm dependency or formatting script. Do not claim a CLI formatting check exists unless one is added later.

Dependency compatibility

Angular major upgrades must run ng update one major at a time. The Angular 21 and 22 migrations preserve Zone.js with provideZoneChangeDetection() and explicitly select ChangeDetectionStrategy.Eager for existing components. Ionic 9 standalone components are imported from @ionic/angular.

ESLint 10 uses eslint.config.cjs; the old .eslintrc.json format is no longer supported. The flat configuration retains the Angular template and selector rules. Unused legacy ESLint plugins and the unused Jasmine spec reporter were removed. Tests use the replacement @angular/platform-browser/testing API, so the deprecated @angular/platform-browser-dynamic package is no longer needed. The unused @angular/animations package was also removed; Ionic manages its own animations.

The browser target follows Angular 22's widely available Baseline date, 2026-05-07. Older browser versions outside that baseline are no longer targeted.

Two scoped npm overrides apply upstream security fixes: Angular's build package uses Vite 8.3.5 or newer within v8, and Capacitor's Xcode parser uses UUID 11.1.1 or newer within v11. Xcode uses the compatible CommonJS uuid.v4() API. Revisit these overrides when upstream packages include the patched versions.

The audit overrides also select patched minimatch 11 for modern consumers, glob 14 for consumers of version 9 or newer, and follow-redirects 1.16.2 or newer for Karma's HTTP proxy. These overrides retain Node.js 22 support. Keep Karma's legacy minimatch 3 and glob 7 dependency paths intact: their callable CommonJS APIs differ from the modern packages. npm still reports moderate findings through those legacy test dependencies; resolving them requires an upstream-compatible test-tooling update. Do not use npm audit fix --force, which proposes incompatible downgrades of Angular and the test tooling.

Tauri workflow

Run Tauri commands through the npm script:

export NVM_DIR="${NVM_DIR:-$HOME/.nvm}"
. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
nvm use lts/jod && npm run tauri dev
nvm use lts/jod && npm run tauri build

Tauri development intentionally expects the frontend at http://localhost:8103. devUrl tells Tauri where to connect, and beforeDevCommand runs npm run ng -- serve --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8103 to serve the frontend on the matching port without opening a browser. This uses the project's Angular CLI and does not require a global Ionic CLI installation. Keep these settings aligned when changing Tauri or serve configuration.

The desktop wrapper is under src-tauri/. Do not edit generated src-tauri/target/ or src-tauri/gen/ content.

Local updater signing

Tauri builds require the private key matching the updater public key in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json. Set the key path in the build shell; Tauri does not load these values from .env files. Keep private keys and passwords outside the repository.

export NVM_DIR="${NVM_DIR:-$HOME/.nvm}"
. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
export TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY="$HOME/.tauri/myapp.key"
# For a key without a password:
export TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD=""
nvm use lts/jod && npm run tauri build

For a password-protected key, replace the empty-password export with a hidden prompt in your terminal:

read -r -s -p "Signing key password: " TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD
echo
export TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD

If you keep the password in $HOME/.tauri/signing-password, restrict the file to your account with chmod 600 "$HOME/.tauri/signing-password", then load it for each build without printing it:

export TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD="$(cat "$HOME/.tauri/signing-password")"

This stores the password as plaintext outside the repository. The export applies only to the current shell and its child processes.

See the Tauri updater signing documentation.

Data storage

Court Pilot has no backend API. It stores domain data in IndexedDB using Dexie. The database and schema are declared in root-level db.ts.

Changing an interface in db.ts may require a database migration for existing users. Follow .agents/skills/database-change/SKILL.md for schema work.

The selected UI language is stored separately in browser local storage under the language key.

Localization workflow

English and Hungarian are both required for user-facing text.

1. Add the same translation key to en and hu in src/app/i18n/translations.ts.
2. Preserve identical placeholder names, such as {courtNo}, in both translations.
3. Use TranslatePipe in templates.
4. Use TranslationService for alerts or other strings created in TypeScript.
5. Build the application so strict translation-key and template typing is checked.

Manual release versioning

Court Pilot uses one application version across its JavaScript, Rust, Tauri, and Snap packages. Releases are updated manually; there is no version synchronization script.

Select the next version

Before changing files, review commits since the latest release tag and recommend a Semantic Versioning bump:

• Breaking change (! or BREAKING CHANGE:) → major
• Backward-compatible feat → minor
• Backward-compatible fix or perf → patch
• Documentation, tests, refactoring, build, CI, chores, and style changes normally do not require a bump by themselves

Use the highest applicable bump. Because older repository commits do not consistently follow Conventional Commits, inspect the implementation and configuration diff since the latest tag whenever the messages are ambiguous. Base the recommendation on shipped behavior, data compatibility, packaging, and supported platforms—not only commit wording.

Show the current version, latest tag, recommendation, bump type, and reasoning to the developer. The developer may accept the recommendation or enter a different semantic version. Do not update files until the developer confirms the final version. Warn before using a version that is not greater than the current release or before using a prerelease identifier.

During release version confirmation, ask whether to run the test suite or skip it. Running tests is the default; skip them only when the developer explicitly chooses to skip. Record any skipped tests in the release validation report. Lint, build, and Cargo checks still apply.

Synchronize the selected version

After confirmation, set the same semantic version in:

1. package.json — top-level version
2. package-lock.json — root package version
3. src-tauri/tauri.conf.json — top-level version
4. src-tauri/Cargo.toml — [package].version
5. src-tauri/Cargo.lock — the court-pilot package entry, normally refreshed by Cargo
6. snap/snapcraft.yaml — top-level version
7. The version displayed by src/app/tab3/tab3.page.html

The current Settings page contains a hardcoded version. Until it is changed to consume build metadata, it must be updated manually for every release.

After editing Cargo.toml, run from src-tauri/:

cargo check

This validates the Rust package and refreshes its lockfile metadata when needed.

Then verify that all version declarations match and run the checks in docs/testing.md, honoring the developer's test choice.

Create the release tag

The synchronized version changes must be committed before tagging. Git tags point to commits and do not include uncommitted working-tree changes. Verify that the intended release commit contains every version update and that the tracked working tree is clean.

Release tags are lightweight tags, matching the repository's existing convention. Confirm the tag does not already exist, then create it with the selected version prefixed by v:

GIT_EDITOR=true git tag v1.2.0

Replace 1.2.0 with the confirmed release version and verify the tag points to the intended commit. Do not overwrite or move an existing release tag.

Creating the tag is local. Pushing it starts .github/workflows/release.yml, which builds Windows and macOS artifacts for CrabNebula and builds/publishes the Linux Snap. After CrabNebula publication succeeds, it also creates a GitHub Release for the pushed tag with generated release notes and attaches the Windows installers, both macOS DMGs, and the Linux Snap. Push only after explicit confirmation:

git push origin v1.2.0

The GitHub Release job uses the built-in GITHUB_TOKEN with job-scoped contents: write permission; no additional secret is required. Existing CrabNebula, updater-signing, and Snap Store secrets are still required. Manual workflow runs on branches skip the GitHub Release job; runs on v* tags include it. Use a new version tag for each release: creation fails if a GitHub Release already exists for that tag.

Generated and local directories

Do not manually edit or commit generated/dependency content unless a workflow explicitly requires an artifact:

• node_modules/
• .angular/
• www/
• coverage/
• src-tauri/target/
• src-tauri/gen/
• generated snap-root/