Ekklesia/docs/development/repository-workflow.md

Repository workflow

Prerequisites

• Node.js 24 LTS (.node-version and .nvmrc pin the reviewed patch)
• pnpm 11.12.0
• Docker with the Compose plugin for local infrastructure

Install dependencies from the committed lockfile:

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile

Quality gates

pnpm format:check  # formatting without mutation
pnpm lint          # Biome recommended rules
pnpm boundaries    # architectural directions, UI ownership, and cycles
pnpm modules:validate # installed module manifests, compatibility, and dependency graph
pnpm migrations:validate # offline Core + module migration inventory and exact checksums
pnpm identity:schema:validate # detects drift against the pinned Better Auth schema generator
pnpm migrations:plan # read-only comparison with PostgreSQL applied history
pnpm migrations:apply # locked, transactional application of the pending batch
pnpm doctor        # build-first, read-only human readiness dashboard
pnpm typecheck     # strict TypeScript
pnpm test          # Vitest
pnpm test:migrations:integration # production runner against disposable PostgreSQL
pnpm build         # Turborepo package build graph
pnpm verify        # every code-only gate; never plan or apply

The lint, typecheck, and test commands run both repository-root checks and every matching package-level Turborepo task. New packages add their own lint, typecheck, and test scripts; the root verification command discovers them automatically.

pnpm modules:validate builds the workspace, then scans modules/* without a central registry. A missing or empty modules directory is valid and reports zero installed modules. Installed modules must produce the compiled JavaScript entrypoints declared by their static manifests. Optional schema entrypoints are loaded and validated for table ownership, namespacing, duplicates, and foreign-key isolation; this command does not connect to PostgreSQL or run migrations.

pnpm migrations:validate also builds first, completes static module discovery, and atomically checks Core's own core/drizzle migration directory together with every declared module Drizzle migration directory. It reports Core's migration first, followed by dependency-first module inventories, with exact SHA-256 checksums, without importing module code, connecting to PostgreSQL, or executing SQL. Modules with no migration history are valid.

pnpm identity:schema:validate regenerates Better Auth's canonical schema with the pinned local auth CLI into a temporary, package-local directory, structurally compares every core model (columns, types, nullability, defaults, foreign keys, and indexes) against the checked-in core/src/identity/schema.ts, and always removes the temporary output. It requires no DATABASE_URL. See Identity for the full upgrade workflow.

Developer Doctor

Run the complete local readiness dashboard with:

pnpm doctor

The root command follows the repository's build-first convention, so it works from a clean checkout without preexisting ignored dist output. The build itself may create ignored compiled artifacts; the diagnostics that follow are operationally read-only. Doctor never edits configuration, applies migrations, creates the Core history table, acquires the migration apply lock, starts module server entrypoints, provisions storage, or invokes Docker.

Doctor evaluates the same host infrastructure configuration the runtime uses. Both pnpm doctor and apps/api map one deployment environment through the same loadHostConfiguration(env) in Core, so a configured object-storage provider, a set module secret, and a configured SMTP relay are all recognized by Doctor exactly as startApi would recognize them — and neither process can silently interpret a value differently from the other. Doctor needs no running API process to do this; export or set the environment the platform would start with and run the command.

Each optional service is reported in one of three distinct states: not configured (absent, and a complete deployment), configured incorrectly (a blocking failure, reported as a sanitized code with no value echoed), or configured but unreachable (a warning, because a transient outage is not a broken deployment).

Doctor reports a fixed, deterministic set of checks:

• The active Node.js version against the repository's declared engine range.
• Static module discovery and dependency-first ordering.
• Schema discovery, including validated module and table counts. This imports compiled schema definitions, which the module contract requires to perform no configuration reads, I/O, or database connection.
• Offline migration discovery for Core's own identity migration and every module, with safe identities and consistently truncated checksums, Core listed first.
• PostgreSQL connectivity and read-only applied-history planning when DATABASE_URL is configured.
• Identity runtime configuration: skipped (not a failure) when no secret, base URL, or trusted origins are set; otherwise validated with createIdentityConfig and reported pass or failure. This check never constructs Better Auth or opens a database connection.
• Module lifecycle and module configuration, resolved exactly as startup resolves them, so Doctor can never report a module as runnable that startup would block, or the reverse.
• Object storage: skipped when no S3_ENDPOINT is set, a blocking failure when the S3_* settings are structurally invalid, and otherwise probed for reachability. Bindings for every module-declared logical bucket are reported separately, because binding is not health.
• Outbound email: skipped when no EKKLESIA_SMTP_HOST is set, a blocking failure when the EKKLESIA_SMTP_* settings are structurally invalid, and otherwise a connection that authenticates where credentials are set and sends nothing.

No check prints a credential: not the storage access or secret key, not the SMTP password, not the identity secret, not a module secret value.

Every check has a stable ID and one of four states: pass, warning, failure, or skipped. Independent checks continue after a failure; a failed prerequisite causes only its dependent checks to be skipped. Pending or approval-blocked migrations are warnings and are never applied. Invalid history, checksum disagreement, unknown applied migrations, or a failed configured connection are failures. If DATABASE_URL is missing, PostgreSQL is skipped and all static checks still run.

READY means every check passed. READY WITH WARNINGS means no check failed but at least one check warned or was skipped. Both results exit zero. NOT READY means at least one check failed and exits one. Meaning never depends on color, a TTY, timestamps, or interactive input.

For the current repository with no installed modules and no DATABASE_URL, the concise inventory ends like this:

Modules
  ✓ Module discovery complete
    0 modules installed
  ✓ Dependency graph valid
    Dependency order is empty.
  ✓ Permission registry composed
    6 permissions registered
  ○ Module lifecycle skipped
    DATABASE_URL is not configured.
  ○ Module configuration skipped
    DATABASE_URL is not configured.

Data definitions
  ✓ Schemas validated
    0 modules · 0 tables
  ✓ Migrations validated
    7 migrations · checksums valid
    core:0000_identity_core_tables · f8f2086ef06f
    core:0001_authorization_core_tables · 830e1fbc26d0
    core:0002_authorization_integrity · 634294731180
    core:0003_dashboard_navigation_tables · 2cde27807aa4
    core:0004_module_lifecycle_state · c8b5d8b3d48b
    core:0005_module_configuration · c8d57f24f84b
    core:0006_device_identity · 1db97b7e3ac5

PostgreSQL
  ✓ Database TLS verified
    TLS required with certificate and hostname verification.
  ○ Connection check skipped
    DATABASE_URL is not configured.
  ○ Migration plan skipped
    A validated migration inventory and configured PostgreSQL connection are required.

Identity
  ○ Identity configuration skipped
    Core identity schema defines 4 tables (ekklesia_core_account, ekklesia_core_session, ekklesia_core_user, ekklesia_core_verification).
    Identity runtime configuration (signing key, base URL, trusted origins) is not set.
  ✓ Direct client-address mode
    Trusts only the actual immediate socket peer for rate limiting; no forwarded header is trusted.

Object storage
  ○ Object storage not configured
    No S3_ENDPOINT is set. This is a complete deployment unless a module requires storage.
  ✓ No module requires object storage
    0 modules declare a logical storage bucket.

Outbound email
  ○ Outbound email not configured
    No EKKLESIA_SMTP_HOST is set. The platform runs and the bootstrap owner can sign in, but email verification and account recovery cannot deliver.

Result: READY WITH WARNINGS

Doctor is a local, human-readable summary. pnpm verify, pnpm ci:verify, infrastructure smoke, and migration smoke remain the authoritative automated evidence because they exercise formatting, boundaries, types, tests, builds, containers, and live mutation/rollback behavior that Doctor does not repeat. Core authorization and the explicit platform-owner bootstrap command have since shipped, and Doctor reports the composed permission registry; it still does not diagnose grant evaluation, the apps/api HTTP transport, runtime module health, or production storage, and it never constructs an operational Better Auth instance, starts the API, or claims sign-in works. See API for pnpm api:start and the identity HTTP transport this repository now has.

Migration planning and application require DATABASE_URL. Keep it in the uncommitted .env created from .env.example:

cp .env.example .env
pnpm migrations:plan
pnpm migrations:apply

Planning completes discovery and validation, reads Core's applied history, and prints a deterministic applied/pending/approval-blocked inventory. It is read-only and can become stale if another process applies migrations afterward. Applying is an explicit mutating operation: it acquires the bounded Core advisory lock, rereads history, checks every destructive approval, and executes the complete pending aggregate in one transaction. A later failure rolls back all schema and history changes from that invocation; migrations committed by earlier invocations remain.

The default command composition supplies no destructive approvals. There is no --force, wildcard, or source-controlled approval escape hatch; deployments must later compose a trusted external provider that supplies an exact module ID, migration identity, and checksum triple.

Migration-runner unit tests cover orchestration through its narrow database port. Run the separate live suite when changing migration behavior:

pnpm test:migrations:integration

It requires Docker with Compose, starts the pinned PostgreSQL image with a generated throwaway credential and a Docker-assigned loopback port, creates an isolated database for each scenario, and removes its containers, network, databases, and volume afterward. It exercises the production adapter and real PostgreSQL transactions, history, advisory locks, approvals, and sanitized errors. It remains outside the Docker-free pnpm verify command.

CI runs pnpm ci:verify, which adds Compose configuration validation to pnpm verify. Separate infrastructure-smoke and migration-smoke jobs run the live service and migration suites. The exact pull-request context to add to main branch protection after merge is CI / migration-smoke (pull_request). The explicit ci:verify suffix avoids pnpm's built-in ci install command.

Development infrastructure

Create an untracked local environment file before using Compose:

cp .env.example .env
pnpm infrastructure:up

Stop services or follow their logs with:

pnpm infrastructure:down
pnpm infrastructure:logs

Exercise both services with isolated, throwaway credentials and Docker-assigned host ports:

pnpm infrastructure:smoke

The smoke test verifies PostgreSQL password authentication and authenticated S3 list, put, get, head, and delete operations. It also proves invalid database passwords, anonymous object access, and invalid S3 signatures are rejected. Its containers, network, and volumes are removed on exit. When the smoke script itself runs in a Docker-based CI job, it temporarily joins that job container to the isolated Compose network and reaches object storage by its service name. Direct host runs continue to use Docker-assigned random ports published only on loopback.

PostgreSQL and the S3 endpoint bind to 127.0.0.1 only. Compose uses persistent named volumes; infrastructure:down preserves data. The S3 service creates the configured development bucket idempotently at startup.

The checked-in credentials are safe only for local development. Deployed secrets must come from an environment-appropriate secret provider and must not be committed.

Docker is not installed in every contributor environment. Compose validation and live service health therefore run separately from the code-only pnpm verify gate.