Getting Started with Minchyn Development Environment

Prerequisites & Installation: #

Before starting Minchyn development, ensure you have Node.js 18.x or higher, Python 3.9+ for backend work, PostgreSQL 14+ for the database, and Redis 6+ for caching. Install Expo CLI globally with npm install -g expo-cli. Clone the repository and run npm install in the project root to install frontend dependencies. For backend setup, navigate to backend/minchyn_backend and install Python dependencies with pip install -r requirements.txt. Configure environment variables by copying .env.example to .env and filling in your local values for database connections, API keys, and service URLs.

Running the Development Server: #

Start the frontend development server with npm start, which launches Expo Dev Server. Press ‘i’ for iOS simulator, ‘a’ for Android emulator, or ‘w’ to open in web browser. The app supports hot reloading, so changes appear instantly without full rebuilds. For backend development, start the Django server with python manage.py runserver from the backend directory. Launch Redis with redis-server and start Celery workers for background tasks with celery -A minchyn_backend worker. Docker Compose simplifies multi-service setup: run docker-compose up to start PostgreSQL, Redis, and backend services simultaneously.

Development Workflow & Tools: #

Use Visual Studio Code with recommended extensions: React Native Tools, Expo Tools, Python, TypeScript, and ESLint. Enable format-on-save with Prettier for consistent code formatting. The codebase uses TypeScript throughout with strict mode enabled–run npm run type-check to validate types. Jest handles unit testing: npm test runs all tests, npm test — –coverage generates coverage reports. For debugging, React Native Debugger provides Redux DevTools and network inspection. Use Flipper for advanced native debugging. Git workflow follows feature branches: create branches from main, make changes, run tests, and submit pull requests. Code review is required before merging to main.