This guide is for contributors who want a repeatable local development environment that matches the current solution layout.

Required:

• .NET 10 SDK
• PostgreSQL
• Git

Recommended:

• Visual Studio 2022 or Visual Studio Code
• Docker Desktop for database or deployment experiments
• pgAdmin, Azure Data Studio, or another PostgreSQL client

The main solution file is src/Egroo.slnx.

git clone https://github.com/jihadkhawaja/Egroo.git
cd Egroo

Create a local PostgreSQL database and then update src/Egroo.Server/appsettings.Development.json.

Example:

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "DefaultConnection": "Server=localhost;Port=5432;User Id=egroo_dev_user;Password=dev_password;Database=egroo_dev;"
  },
  "Secrets": {
    "Jwt": "development-jwt-secret-at-least-32-characters"
  },
  "Encryption": {
    "Key": "12345678901234567890123456789012",
    "IV": "1234567890123456"
  }
}

From the repository root:

dotnet build src/Egroo.slnx --configuration Debug

Terminal 1:

dotnet watch --project src/Egroo.Server/Egroo.Server.csproj

Terminal 2:

dotnet watch --project src/Egroo/Egroo/Egroo.csproj

Runtime defaults:

• API: http://localhost:5175
• Web app: http://localhost:5068
• Swagger: http://localhost:5175/swagger

The UI already targets http://localhost:5175/ in debug builds through src/Egroo.UI/Constants/Source.cs.

Run the server tests:

dotnet test src/Egroo.Server.Test/Egroo.Server.Test.csproj --verbosity normal

The test project uses an in-memory EF Core setup, so it does not require a live PostgreSQL instance for normal test runs.

Migrations target src/Egroo.Server.

Common scripts:

.\scripts\add-migration.ps1 "MigrationName"
.\scripts\update-database.ps1

Important detail:

• normal local startup already runs db.Database.MigrateAsync() automatically
• use migration scripts when you intentionally change the data model

Open src/Egroo.slnx and run both startup projects:

• Egroo.Server
• Egroo

The workspace already includes build and test tasks for:

• building the full solution
• building the API
• building the Blazor host
• running the server tests

If you mainly work in VS Code, those tasks are the easiest way to keep the standard commands consistent.

• database access lives in repositories in src/Egroo.Server/Repository
• minimal API endpoints live under src/Egroo.Server/API
• the SignalR hub is mapped at /chathub
• CORS is opened in debug builds
• message payloads can be encrypted per recipient and decrypted on the receiving device
• server-side Encryption:Key and Encryption:IV are still required for protected server records and encrypted transport workflows
• IConnectionTracker is in-memory by default, so local development is effectively single-node

• user profiles can publish EncryptionPublicKey and EncryptionKeyId
• device private keys stay in client storage and are not stored in PostgreSQL
• clearing browser storage or using a different device can put the client out of sync until the encryption key is regenerated
• if you change persisted encryption fields or mappings, add a migration and update the docs in the same change

1. Pull latest changes.
2. Build the solution.
3. Start API and web host with dotnet watch.
4. Run tests for the area you changed.
5. Update docs when behavior or setup changes.

• Getting Started
• Configuration
• Deployment
• Troubleshooting