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Local Backend Setup

To develop features like new API routes, Workflow Engine logic, or Datasource drivers, you must run the apps/backend project locally.

Prerequisites​

  • Node.js 18+ installed.
  • PostgreSQL Database: You must have a local instance or a cloud database URL available.
  • Firebase Admin SDK Key: Required for decrypting and validating JWT tokens sent by the frontend.

1. Installation​

From the Jet Admin Mono-Repository root:

npm install

2. Environment Variables​

Navigate to apps/backend/ and create an .env file based on .env.sample.

NODE_ENV=development
PORT=8090

# Crucial: Your local PostgreSQL database connection string
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/jetadmin?schema=public"

# Frontend Origin Whitelist
CORS_WHITELIST="http://localhost:5173"

# Features to Enable Local Testing
ENABLED_MODULES=AUTH,TENANT,DATABASE,DATASOURCE,DATAQUERY,DASHBOARD,WIDGET,WORKFLOW,AI
GEMINI_API_KEY="optional-for-ai-features"

3. Firebase Service Account​

Jet Admin uses Firebase for Authentication. To allow your local backend to securely verify incoming requests, you must provide a Firebase Admin SDK private key.

  1. Go to your Firebase Console > Project Settings > Service Accounts.
  2. Click Generate New Private Key.
  3. Save the downloaded JSON file to the root of the monolithic repository as firebase-key.json.

Note: This file is ignored by .gitignore. Never commit it.

4. Prisma Migrations​

Jet Admin uses Prisma as its ORM to manage platform metadata (users, dashboards, workflows). You must migrate your database schema before starting the server.

cd apps/backend
npx prisma migrate dev --name init

This command will read your DATABASE_URL and create the required tblTenants, tblUsers, etc.

5. Starting the Backend​

From the repository root workspace, start the backend in watch mode using Nodemon:

npm run start:b

You should see logs indicating:

  • The Express API is listening on http://localhost:8090.
  • Socket.IO has attached successfully.
  • The In-Memory Workflow Queue (fastq) has initialized.

Optional: Full Stack Execution​

To run the backend, the React frontend, and the shared package watchers all simultaneously:

npm run dev:all