molecule-core/docs/development/local-development.md

Local Development

Workspace Template Images: Local-Build Mode (Issue #63)

OSS contributors who run molecule-core locally do not need to authenticate to GHCR or AWS ECR. When the MOLECULE_IMAGE_REGISTRY env var is unset, the platform automatically:

1. Looks up the HEAD sha of https://git.moleculesai.app/molecule-ai/molecule-ai-workspace-template-<runtime> (single API call, no clone).
2. If a local image tagged molecule-local/workspace-template-<runtime>:<sha12> already exists, reuses it (cache hit).
3. Otherwise, shallow-clones the repo into ~/.cache/molecule/workspace-template-build/<runtime>/<sha12>/ and runs docker build --platform=linux/amd64 -t <tag> ..
4. Hands the SHA-pinned tag to Docker for ContainerCreate.

First-provision build time: 5–10 min on Apple Silicon (amd64 emulation). Subsequent provisions hit the cache and start in seconds. Cache is invalidated automatically when the template repo's HEAD moves.

Currently mirrored on Gitea: claude-code, hermes, langgraph, autogen. Other runtimes (crewai, deepagents, codex, gemini-cli, openclaw) fail with an actionable "not mirrored to Gitea" error pointing at the missing repo.

Production tenants are unaffected — every prod tenant sets MOLECULE_IMAGE_REGISTRY to its private ECR mirror via Railway env / EC2 user-data, so the SaaS pull path stays identical.

Environment overrides

Var	Default	Use case
MOLECULE_IMAGE_REGISTRY	(unset)	Set to a real registry URL to switch from local-build to SaaS-pull mode.
MOLECULE_LOCAL_BUILD_CACHE	~/.cache/molecule/workspace-template-build	Override cache directory.
MOLECULE_LOCAL_TEMPLATE_REPO_PREFIX	https://git.moleculesai.app/molecule-ai/molecule-ai-workspace-template-	Point at a fork.
MOLECULE_GITEA_TOKEN	(unset)	Required only if your fork has private template repos.

Verifying a switch from the GHCR-retag stopgap

Pre-fix, OSS contributors worked around the suspended GHCR org by manually retagging an :latest image. After this change, that workaround is redundant: simply unset MOLECULE_IMAGE_REGISTRY (or leave it unset), boot the platform, and provision a workspace. Logs will show:

Provisioner: local-build mode → using locally-built image molecule-local/workspace-template-claude-code:<sha12> for runtime claude-code
local-build: cloning https://git.moleculesai.app/molecule-ai/molecule-ai-workspace-template-claude-code → ...
local-build: docker build done in <duration>

If you still see ghcr.io/molecule-ai/... in the boot log, double-check env | grep MOLECULE_IMAGE_REGISTRY — a stale shell export from the pre-fix workaround could keep SaaS-mode active.

Starting the Stack

docker compose up

This starts:

Service	Port	Description
Postgres	internal only	Primary database
Redis	internal only	Ephemeral state
Platform (Go)	:8080	Control plane API
Canvas (Next.js)	:3000	Visual frontend
Langfuse web	:3001 (host) / :3000 (internal)	Observability UI
Langfuse worker	—	Background processing
ClickHouse	—	Langfuse dependency

Each workspace container is provisioned on demand by the platform when a user creates or imports one.

Langfuse uses a dedicated langfuse Postgres database. The compose stack creates it automatically before starting the Langfuse service, so it does not conflict with the platform's molecule schema.

Infrastructure Only

To start just Postgres, Redis, and Langfuse (no application code):

docker compose -f docker-compose.infra.yml up

Optional Profiles

docker compose --profile multi-provider up  # Add LiteLLM proxy (unified LLM API)
docker compose --profile local-models up    # Add Ollama (local LLM models)

Environment Variables

Platform (Go)

DATABASE_URL=postgres://dev:dev@postgres:5432/molecule?sslmode=prefer
REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379
PORT=8080
SECRETS_ENCRYPTION_KEY=dev-key-change-in-production
WORKSPACE_DIR=/path/to/molecule-core   # Optional global fallback; prefer per-workspace workspace_dir in org.yaml or API

Canvas (Next.js)

NEXT_PUBLIC_PLATFORM_URL=http://localhost:8080
NEXT_PUBLIC_WS_URL=ws://localhost:8080/ws

Workspace Runtime

WORKSPACE_ID=           # assigned by platform on provision
WORKSPACE_CONFIG_PATH=  # path to config folder inside container
MODEL_PROVIDER=         # e.g. anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-6
TIER=                   # 1, 2, 3, or 4
PLATFORM_URL=           # http://platform:8080
PARENT_ID=              # set by platform during team expansion (empty for top-level)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=      # or OPENAI_API_KEY, etc.
LANGFUSE_HOST=          # http://langfuse-web:3000 (internal container port; host-mapped to :3001)
LANGFUSE_PUBLIC_KEY=
LANGFUSE_SECRET_KEY=
LANGSMITH_TRACING=true  # LangGraph reads this to enable tracing

Technology Versions

Go              1.25+ (go.mod)
Python          3.11+
Node.js         22+
Next.js         15
React Flow      12   (@xyflow/react)
a2a-sdk         0.3+ (A2A server SDK, install with a2a-sdk[http-server])
langfuse        3.x  (self-hosted Docker)
Postgres        16
Redis           7
Docker Compose  2.x

Running Tests

Unit Tests

cd workspace-server && go test -race ./...               # Go tests with race detection (695 tests)
cd canvas && npm test                            # Vitest tests (357 tests)
cd workspace && python -m pytest -v     # Workspace runtime tests (1140 tests)
cd sdk/python && python -m pytest -v             # SDK tests (121 tests)
cd mcp-server && npm test                        # MCP server tests (97 Jest tests)

Integration Tests

bash tests/e2e/test_api.sh                 # 62 API tests (quick local verify; Phase 30.1 bearer-auth aware; also runs in CI)
bash tests/e2e/test_a2a_e2e.sh             # 22 A2A e2e tests (requires platform + 2 agents)
bash tests/e2e/test_activity_e2e.sh        # 25 activity/task E2E tests (requires platform + 1 agent)
bash tests/e2e/test_comprehensive_e2e.sh   # 67 endpoint/memory/bundle/approval checks

All E2E scripts share tests/e2e/_lib.sh helpers and are shellcheck-clean (enforced in CI). See ./testing-e2e.md for auth prerequisites and what CI runs.

CI Pipeline

GitHub Actions runs automatically on push to main and on PRs (.github/workflows/ci.yml):

• platform-build — Go build, vet, go test -race with coverage profiling (25% baseline threshold; setup-go uses module cache)
• canvas-build — npm build, vitest run (no --passWithNoTests -- tests must exist and pass)
• mcp-server-build — npm build
• python-lint — pytest --cov=. --cov-report=term-missing (pytest-cov enabled)
• e2e-api (added 2026-04-13) — Postgres + Redis service containers, migrations applied via docker exec, tests/e2e/test_api.sh must pass 62/62
• shellcheck (added 2026-04-13) — lints every tests/e2e/*.sh

Postgres and Redis are not exposed to the host -- use docker compose exec postgres psql or docker compose exec redis redis-cli for direct access.

Utility Scripts

Script	Purpose
infra/scripts/setup.sh	Initialize the local environment
infra/scripts/nuke.sh	Tear down and clean up everything
bundle-compile.sh	Compile workspace config folders into .bundle.json files
test_api.sh	Run 62 platform API integration tests
test_a2a_e2e.sh	Run 22 A2A end-to-end tests
test_activity_e2e.sh	Run 25 activity/task E2E tests
setup-org.sh	Create default 15-agent org hierarchy (PM + Marketing/Research/Dev teams, all Claude Code)

Related Docs

• Architecture — System overview
• Observability — Langfuse details