Setup Developer Environment

These instructions will take you through the minimal steps required to get a dev environment setup, so you can run the tests locally.

Clone the repository

First clone the repository locally using Git. There is a link on the GitHub interface to allow you to do this. SSH is recommended if you have setup a key. Enter the directory that it is cloned into to continue.

Install dependencies

It is recommended that developers use a vscode devcontainer. This repository contains configuration to set up a containerized development environment that suits its own needs.

Ensure you have the vscode devcontainer extension installed.

If you are at DLS, then first setup podman and its fix for devcontainer features and then follow these instructions for setting up devcontainers on a DLS workstation.

code .

Click on ‘Reopen in Container’ when prompted on startup or, if vscode is already running, open the command menu with CTRL+SHIFT+P, search for and run ‘Reopen in Container’.

The developer container creates and activates a venv (stored in /cache/venv-for/path/to/project) and this will be managed by any uv sync command as explained in Lock requirements. Any rebuild of the container will recreate this venv, but the dependencies will be stored in a cross container cache so that rebuilds are quick.

Build and test

Now you have a development environment you can run the tests in a new terminal:

tox -p

This will run in parallel the following checks:

• Build the docs using sphinx

• Run the tests using pytest

• Run static analysis using pyright or mypy

• Run linting using pre-commit