Quickstart: contributing

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Setup Local Environment

Step 1. Install pnpm on your OS (version 8.14.3 or higher):

npm install -g pnpm

Step 3. Install the required dev dependencies:

• Go to <CopilotKit Directory>/CopilotKit/
• Run pnpm -w install --dev
• Press Y to accept (read question first).

Step 3. Add the required environment variables:

• Go to <CopilotKit Directory>/CopilotKit/examples/next-openai/
• Duplicate .env.local.example, name the duplicate .env.local
• Edit .env.local with approrpriate values

Step 4. Recursively install & build all dependencies:

In <CopilotKit Directory>/CopilotKit run:

pnpm -w freshbuild

Step 5. Run all packages & the example app in dev mode, to automatically load changes on file save.

Please Note!
If you save files in a file that’s part of the example app, the app will hot-load the changes automatically. But if you make changes in a package, you first have to go to a file of the example app, and re-save it, for the package changes to propagate into the running app.

In <CopilotKit Directory>/CopilotKit/ run:

pnpm run dev

By default the app will run on http://localhost:3000, however if 3000 is already taken, it will try other available ports sequentially. To see which port was chosen, look in the output logs for something like

next-openai:dev: - ready started server on 0.0.0.0:3002, url: http://localhost:3002

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Testing your solution

Before submitting a pull request, please run the following locally:

1. Lint your code: pnpm -w format

2. Make sure there are no build errors: pnpm -w freshbuild

3. Make sure tests are passing pnpm run test

4. (Optional): Run QA test scripts We have some scripts in CopilotKit/scripts/qa that can help you test your changes. For example, to test your changes in a fresh NextJS app you can run scripts/qa/next.sh.

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Troubleshooting

Here’s how to solve some common problems when working with the CLI.

Need support? Check out the #contributing channel in the Discord.