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Requirements

  • Node.js version v20.8.1
  • MongoDB
  • Redis
  • (Optional) pnpm - Needed if you want to install new packages
  • (Optional) localstack (required only in S3 related modules)
Need help installing the requirements? Read more here.
We recommend having at least 8GB of RAM to run Novu on a local machine as Novu has multiple services running together with external services like redis, mongodb etc.

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Setup the project

After installing the required services on your machine, you can clone and set up your forked version of the project:
  1. Clone the repository
  • Novu Org
  • Forked Repo
shell git clone https://github.com/novuhq/novu.git
  1. Install all dependencies
cd novu && npm run setup:project
  1. Run the project
npm run start
The npm run start will start the Jarvis CLI tool which allows you to run the whole project with ease. If you only want to run parts of the platform, you can use the following run commands from the root project:
  • start:dev - Synonym to npm run start
  • start:web - Only starts the web management platform
  • start:ws - Only starts the WebSocket service for notification center updates
  • start:widget - Starts the widget wrapper project that hosts the notification center inside an iframe
  • start:api - Runs the API in watch mode
  • start:worker - Runs the worker application in watch mode
  • start:dal - Runs the Data Access Layer package in watch mode
  • start:shared - Starts the watch mode for the shared client and API library
  • start:node - Runs the @novu/node package in watch mode
  • start:notification-center - Runs and builds the React package for the Novu notification center

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Set up your environment variables

If you have used Jarvis CLI tool from the previous step you don’t need to setup the env variables as Jarvis will do that on the first run if setup wasn’t done before. The command npm run setup:project creates default environment variables that are required to run Novu in a development environment. However, if you want to test certain parts of Novu or run it in production mode, you need to change some of them. These are all the available environment variables:
  • NODE_ENV (default: local)The environment of the app. Possible values are: dev, test, production, ci, local
  • S3_LOCAL_STACKThe AWS endpoint for the S3 Bucket required for storing various media
  • S3_BUCKET_NAMEThe name of the S3 Bucket
  • S3_REGIONThe AWS region of the S3 Bucket
  • PORTThe port on which the API backend should listen on
  • FRONT_BASE_URLThe base url on which your frontend is accessible for the user. (e.g. dashboard.novu.co)
  • DISABLE_USER_REGISTRATION (default: false)If users should not be able to create new accounts. Possible values are: true, false
  • REDIS_HOSTThe domain / IP of your redis instance
  • REDIS_PORTThe port of your redis instance
  • REDIS_PASSWORDOptional password of your redis instance
  • REDIS_DB_INDEXThe Redis database index
  • REDIS_CACHE_SERVICE_HOSTThe domain / IP of your redis instance for caching
  • REDIS_CACHE_SERVICE_PORTThe port of your redis instance for caching
  • REDIS_CACHE_DB_INDEXThe Redis cache database index
  • REDIS_CACHE_TTLThe Redis cache ttl
  • REDIS_CACHE_PASSWORDThe Redis cache password
  • REDIS_CACHE_CONNECTION_TIMEOUTThe Redis cache connection timeout
  • REDIS_CACHE_KEEP_ALIVEThe Redis cache TCP keep alive on the socket timeout
  • REDIS_CACHE_FAMILYThe Redis cache IP stack version
  • REDIS_CACHE_KEY_PREFIXThe Redis cache prefix prepend to all keys
  • REDIS_CACHE_SERVICE_TLSThe Redis cache TLS connection support
  • IN_MEMORY_CLUSTER_MODE_ENABLEDThe flag that enables the cluster mode. It might be Redis or ElastiCache cluster, depending on the env variables set for either service.
  • ELASTICACHE_CLUSTER_SERVICE_HOSTElastiCache cluster host
  • ELASTICACHE_CLUSTER_SERVICE_PORTElastiCache cluster port
  • REDIS_CLUSTER_SERVICE_HOSTRedis cluster host
  • REDIS_CLUSTER_SERVICE_PORTSRedis cluster ports
  • REDIS_CLUSTER_DB_INDEXRedis cluster database index
  • REDIS_CLUSTER_TTLRedis cluster ttl
  • REDIS_CLUSTER_PASSWORDRedis cluster password
  • REDIS_CLUSTER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUTRedis cluster connection timeout
  • REDIS_CLUSTER_KEEP_ALIVERedis cluster TCP keep alive on the socket timeout
  • REDIS_CLUSTER_FAMILYRedis cluster IP stack version
  • REDIS_CLUSTER_KEY_PREFIXRedis cluster prefix prepend to all keys
  • JWT_SECRETThe secret keybase which is used to encrypt / verify the tokens issued for authentication
  • SENDGRID_API_KEYThe api key of the Sendgrid account used to send various emails
  • MONGO_URLThe URL of your MongoDB instance
  • MONGO_MAX_POOL_SIZEThe max pool size of the MongoDB connection
  • NOVU_SECRET_KEYThe api key of dashboard.novu.co used to send various emails
  • SENTRY_DSNThe DSN of sentry.io used to report errors happening in production
  • NODE_ENV (default: local)The environment of the app. Possible values are: dev, test, production, ci, local - PORTThe port on which the Worker app should listen on - STORE_ENCRYPTION_KEYThe encryption key used to encrypt/decrypt provider credentials - MAX_NOVU_INTEGRATION_MAIL_REQUESTSThe number of free emails that can be sent with the Novu email provider - NOVU_EMAIL_INTEGRATION_API_KEYThe Novu email provider Sentry API key - STORAGE_SERVICEThe storage service name: AWS, GCS, or AZURE - S3_LOCAL_STACKThe LocalStack service URL - S3_BUCKET_NAMEThe name of the S3 Bucket - S3_REGIONThe AWS region of the S3 Bucket - GCS_BUCKET_NAMEThe name of the GCS Bucket - AZURE_ACCOUNT_NAMEThe name of the Azure account - AZURE_ACCOUNT_KEYThe Azure account key - AZURE_HOST_NAMEThe Azure host name - AZURE_CONTAINER_NAMEThe Azure container name - AWS_ACCESS_KEY_IDThe AWS access key - AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEYThe AWS secret access key - REDIS_HOSTThe domain / IP of your redis instance - REDIS_PORTThe port of your redis instance - REDIS_PASSWORDOptional password of your redis instance
  • REDIS_DB_INDEXThe Redis database index - REDIS_CACHE_SERVICE_HOSTThe domain / IP of your redis instance for caching - REDIS_CACHE_SERVICE_PORTThe port of your redis instance for caching - REDIS_DB_INDEXThe Redis cache database index - REDIS_CACHE_TTLThe Redis cache ttl - REDIS_CACHE_PASSWORDThe Redis cache password - REDIS_CACHE_CONNECTION_TIMEOUTThe Redis cache connection timeout - REDIS_CACHE_KEEP_ALIVEThe Redis cache TCP keep alive on the socket timeout - REDIS_CACHE_FAMILYThe Redis cache IP stack version - REDIS_CACHE_KEY_PREFIXThe Redis cache prefix prepend to all keys - REDIS_CACHE_SERVICE_TLSThe Redis cache TLS connection support - IN_MEMORY_CLUSTER_MODE_ENABLEDThe flag that enables the cluster mode. It might be Redis or ElastiCache cluster, depending on the env variables set for either service. - ELASTICACHE_CLUSTER_SERVICE_HOSTElastiCache cluster host - ELASTICACHE_CLUSTER_SERVICE_PORTElastiCache cluster port - REDIS_CLUSTER_SERVICE_HOSTRedis cluster host - REDIS_CLUSTER_SERVICE_PORTSRedis cluster ports - REDIS_CLUSTER_DB_INDEXRedis cluster database index - REDIS_CLUSTER_TTLRedis cluster ttl - REDIS_CLUSTER_PASSWORDRedis cluster password - REDIS_CLUSTER_CONNECTION_TIMEOUTRedis cluster connection timeout
  • REDIS_CLUSTER_KEEP_ALIVERedis cluster TCP keep alive on the socket timeout
  • REDIS_CLUSTER_FAMILYRedis cluster IP stack version - REDIS_CLUSTER_KEY_PREFIXRedis cluster prefix prepend to all keys - MONGO_URLThe URL of your MongoDB instance - MONGO_MAX_POOL_SIZEThe max pool size of the MongoDB connection - NEW_RELIC_APP_NAMEThe New Relic app name - NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEYThe New Relic license key - SEGMENT_TOKENThe Segment Analytics token
  • REACT_APP_ENVIRONMENT The environment of the app. Possible values are: dev, test, production, ci, local - REACT_APP_API_URL The base url on which your API backend would be accessible - REACT_APP_WS_URL The base url on which your WebSocket service would be accessible - SKIP_PREFLIGHT_CHECK (default: true)Solves a problem with React App dependency tree.
When configuring different than default values for the API and WebSocket URLs, in order for the Web app to apply the changes done to the ./env file, it is needed to run the script pnpm envsetup. This will generate a file called env-config.js that will be copied inside of the public folder of the application. Its purpose is to inject in the window._env_object the chosen environment variables that manage the URLs the Web client will call to access to the API backend and the WebSocket service.
  • NODE_ENV (default: local)The environment of the app. Possible values are: dev, test, production, ci, local
  • SENTRY_DSNThe DSN of sentry.io used to report errors happening in production
  • REDIS_HOSTThe domain / IP of your redis instance
  • REDIS_PORTThe port of your redis instance
  • REDIS_DB_INDEXThe database index of your redis instance
  • REDIS_PASSWORDOptional password of your redis instance
  • JWT_SECRETThe secret keybase which is used to encrypt / verify the tokens issued for authentication
  • MONGO_URLThe URL of your MongoDB instance
  • MONGO_MAX_POOL_SIZEThe max pool size of the MongoDB connection
  • PORTThe port on which the WebSocket service should listen on

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Running tests

After making changes, you can run the tests for the respective package using the appropriate CLI commands:

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API

To run the API tests, run the following command: 
npm run start:worker:test
npm run start:e2e:api
The tests create a new instance of Novu and a test db and run the tests against it. The test db is removed after all tests have finished running.

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Web

To run the front end tests for the web project using cypress you need to install localstack. The cypress tests perform E2E tests. To be able to perform E2E tests, you need to run the API service in the appropriate test environment. Run the services in test env with the following commands: 
npm run start:web
npm run start:api:test
npm run start:worker:test
npm run start:ws:test
Run the cypress test suite with the following command: 
cd apps/web && npm run cypress:run
To open the cypress management window to debug tests, run the following commands: 
cd apps/web && npm run cypress:open

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Different ports used by the services

  • 3000 - API
  • 3002 - WebSocket Service
  • 3003 - Webhook Service
  • 3004 - Worker Service
  • 4200 - Web Management UI
  • 4701 - Iframe embed for notification center
  • 4500 - Widget Service

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Testing providers

To run tests against the providers’ folder, you can use the npm run test:providers command.

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Local environment setup script (beta)

As an option in our script runner Jarvis we have made available an option to run this script that will automatically try to install all the dependencies needed to be able to run Novu locally, as the previous step of installing the project dependencies through pnpm install. When executing it inside Jarvis, you will need to have previously installed by yourself git and node, as we mentioned earlier on this page. The script can be run on its own without any previous dependency installed, as it is prepared to execute the following tasks:
  • Check the running OS in the local machine (currently only MacOSx and GNU Linuxsupported)
  • Install of OS dependencies (currently only MacOSx supported) — MacOSx: It will execute the following tasks --- Will try to install or update XCode (skippable step; though XCode installs [git](https://git-scm.com/) that is a required dependency for later) --- Will install Rosetta for Apple CPUs --- Will set up some opinionated OS settings
  • Will check if [git](https://git-scm.com/) is installed and if not will abort the operation
  • Will make ZSH the default shell to be able to execute the next task
  • Will (opinionatedly) install Oh My Zsh! (skippable task)
  • Will (opinionatedly) install the Homebrew package manager and will set up your local environment to execute it besides adding some casks
  • Will (opinionatedly) install NVM as a Node.js version manager
  • Will install the required Node.js version to be able to run Novu
  • Will install PNPM as a package manager, required dependency for some of the tasks inside Novu’s scripts
  • Will install Docker as containerized application development tool
  • Will install required databases MongoDB (Community version) and Redis through Homebrew
  • Will install the AWS CLI tool (not required to run Novu; it is a core maintainer used tool)
  • Will create a local development domain local.novu.co in your local machine
  • Will clone the Novu repository in your local machine (skippable step) to a selected folder $HOME/Dev
This script has only been thoroughly tested in MacOSx. Little testing has been run in GNU Linux.
This script is not bullet-proof and some of the tasks have intertwined dependencies with each other. We have tried to make it as idempotent as possible but some loose knots will probably show because of conflicts between versions of the different dependencies. Please report to us any problem found and we will try to fix or assist though we do not have the resources to make it idempotent in every potential system and potential combinations