Setup

Overview

This guide will help you set up Ghost on your local machine quickly and efficiently. Ghost uses Docker to orchestrate its ecosystem of services.

Here is a list of the services, and what they do:

• frontend: Custom frontend application (React)
• db: [PostgreSQL] database server
• backend: Custom backend application (Django)
• rabbitmq: [RabbitMQ] message broker for asynchronous communication
• celery: [Celery] worker for processing background tasks
• celery-beat: [Celery Beat] scheduler for periodic tasks

Installation

1. Install the system-wide dependencies required to build and run the application with Homebrew

   brew install pyenv pyenv-virtualenv nvm

2. Configure Python:

   Install the current Python version we're using:

   pyenv install 3.12.2

   Create a virtual environment named ghost for the project:

   pyenv virtualenv 3.12.2 ghost

   Navigate to your Ghost project directory and set the local Python version to use the ghost virtual environment:

   cd /path/to/ghost/project
   pyenv local ghost

   Verify Python Setup

   python --version  # Should show Python 3.12.2
   which python  # Should point to the pyenv-managed Python

   Setup the python environment with the tools you need:

   pip install pip-tools
   cd server
   pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Configure Node.js: Use nvm to install and use the current Node.js version we're using:

   Setup the node environment with the tools you need:

   cd app
   nvm use
   npm install

4. Copy over .env.example to .env and fill in the necessary values.

   cp .env.example .env

5. In the .env file, set DJANGO_SUPERUSER_EMAIL to your email address so you can login to the frontend.

6. Follow either (i) Docker or (ii) Local Setup instructions below.

   1. Docker Setup (recommended):

      Install Docker Desktop and run the following command:

      docker-compose up --build

   2. Local Setup (only as a last resort):

      1. Start the database:

         brew install postgres
         brew services start postgresql
      2. Start the backend:

         cd server
         pyenv activate
         python manage.py runserver
      3. Start the frontend:

         cd app
         npm run dev