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Developer Setup Guide

Welcome to Engram development. This guide walks through setting up a local environment for contributing code to the project.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

  • Python 3.11 or higher
  • Git
  • Make
  • A code editor such as VS Code or PyCharm
  • Docker, optional for container-based development
  • PostgreSQL, optional for testing the ENGRAM_DB_URL workflow

Verify the core tools:

python --version
git --version
make help

Local development uses SQLite by default, so PostgreSQL is only needed when you are explicitly testing the team-mode database path.

Fork and Clone

  1. Fork the repository on GitHub.
  2. Clone your fork:
git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/Engram.git
cd Engram
  1. Add the upstream remote:
git remote add upstream https://github.com/Agentscreator/engram-memory.git
git remote -v

Replace YOUR-USERNAME with your GitHub username.

Set Up Python

Create and activate a virtual environment.

On Windows PowerShell:

python -m venv venv
.\venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

On macOS or Linux:

python3.11 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

Then install Engram and development dependencies:

make install

This installs Engram in editable mode, project dependencies, and development tools such as pytest and ruff.

If your machine has multiple Python installations, pin the interpreter explicitly:

make install PYTHON=/path/to/python
make test PYTHON=/path/to/python

Verify the Setup

Check that Engram imports correctly:

python -c "import engram; print('Engram imported successfully')"

Run the local HTTP MCP server:

make serve

Open the local dashboard at:

http://127.0.0.1:7474/dashboard

Press Ctrl+C to stop the server.

Common Commands

Use the root Makefile as the canonical command entry point:

make help

Common targets:

make install        # Install development dependencies
make test           # Run CI-style tests
make lint           # Run ruff lint checks
make format         # Format Python files with ruff
make format-check   # Check formatting without writing changes
make check          # Run lint, format-check, and tests
make build          # Build Python package artifacts
make clean          # Remove local build/cache artifacts
make serve          # Run the local HTTP MCP server

Docker targets:

make docker-build
make docker-up
make docker-up-sqlite
make docker-up-postgres
make docker-down
make docker-logs

make docker-up starts the SQLite profile by default. Use make docker-up-postgres when you need the PostgreSQL profile.

Development Workflow

Create a feature branch before making changes:

git checkout main
git pull upstream main
git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name

Good branch names:

  • fix/conflict-detection-threshold
  • docs/add-troubleshooting-guide
  • feature/improve-entity-extraction

Make your changes in the relevant area:

  • Core logic: src/engram/
  • Tests: tests/
  • Documentation: docs/, README.md, or contributor docs

Before opening a PR, run:

make check

For focused testing:

make test
make test TEST_ARGS="tests/test_file.py::test_name -vv -s"

Commit and Push

Review your changes:

git status
git diff

Stage and commit:

git add <changed-files>
git commit -m "docs: update developer setup workflow"

Use conventional commit prefixes such as fix:, feat:, docs:, test:, or chore:.

Push your branch:

git push origin feature/your-feature-name

Submit a Pull Request

  1. Open your fork on GitHub.
  2. Click Compare & pull request.
  3. Explain what changed, why it changed, and how you tested it.
  4. Create the pull request.

If maintainers request changes, update your branch and push again. The PR updates automatically.

Troubleshooting

make install fails

Make sure you are in the repository root and your virtual environment is active:

cd Engram
make install

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'engram'

Reinstall the editable package:

make install

Tests fail with missing database tables

Initialize the local database, then rerun tests:

python -m engram --init-db
make test

Docker services do not start

Check Docker is running and inspect the logs:

docker --version
make docker-logs

For PostgreSQL profile testing, set required overrides in a local .env file and never commit secrets.

Next Steps

  1. Read docs/IMPLEMENTATION.md.
  2. Review CONTRIBUTING.md.
  3. Open a GitHub Discussion if you need design alignment before implementing.