Development Workflow

This guide covers day-to-day development commands, debugging strategies, and code quality practices for working on the Ever Works Platform.

Development Commands

All commands are run from the monorepo root unless otherwise noted. Turborepo orchestrates task execution across all workspace packages.

Starting Dev Servers

# Start every app in watch mode -- API, Web and MCP in parallel
# (all of apps/* except docs, desktop, desktop-node and node)
pnpm dev:apps

# Start only the API (NestJS, port 3100)
pnpm dev:api

# Start only the Web dashboard (Next.js, port 3000)
pnpm dev:web

# Start only the documentation site (Docusaurus)
pnpm dev:docs

# Start the Trigger.dev dev server (background jobs)
pnpm dev:trigger

There is no root pnpm dev script -- pick the target you want from the list above.

Under the hood, these map to Turborepo filters:

Command	Turborepo Equivalent
pnpm dev:apps	turbo dev --filter=./apps/* --filter=!./apps/docs --filter=!./apps/desktop --filter=!./apps/desktop-node --filter=!./apps/node
pnpm dev:api	turbo dev --filter=ever-works-api
pnpm dev:web	turbo dev --filter=ever-works-web
pnpm dev:docs	turbo dev --filter=ever-works-docs
pnpm dev:trigger	turbo dev:trigger --filter=@ever-works/trigger-tasks

Building

# Build everything (Turborepo handles dependency order via ^build)
pnpm build

# Build only apps
pnpm build:apps

# Build only shared packages
pnpm build:packages

# Build the plugin system and all plugins
pnpm build:plugins

# Build a single package
turbo build --filter=ever-works-api
turbo build --filter=@ever-works/agent
turbo build --filter=@ever-works/plugin

The build task in turbo.json declares "dependsOn": ["^build"], which means Turborepo automatically builds dependencies before their consumers. Output works (dist/, build/, .next/) are cached.

Build Order

Turborepo resolves the dependency graph automatically. A typical build proceeds as follows:

Hot-Reloading Behavior

API (NestJS + SWC)

The API uses nest start -b swc --watch, which provides fast recompilation via SWC:

• File changes in apps/api/src/ trigger automatic restart
• SWC compilation is significantly faster than the default TypeScript compiler
• Changes to workspace dependencies (e.g., @ever-works/agent) require rebuilding that package separately or restarting the dev server

Web (Next.js + Turbopack)

The Web app uses next dev --turbopack for development:

• React Fast Refresh preserves component state on save
• Turbopack provides near-instant hot module replacement
• Server components recompile on file changes automatically
• Changes to @ever-works/contracts or @ever-works/plugin are picked up if those packages are also in watch mode

Cross-Package Changes

When editing a shared package (e.g., @ever-works/contracts) while apps are running:

1. Option A -- Rebuild the package manually:

   turbo build --filter=@ever-works/contracts

   Then restart the consuming app.

2. Option B -- Run the apps together with pnpm dev:apps, which starts every app except docs, desktop, desktop-node and node in watch mode. Note that this starts the apps, not the shared packages: a changed workspace package still needs the turbo build --filter=... from Option A unless that package has its own dev script (@ever-works/agent does -- see Working with Multiple Packages).

Debugging with VS Code

API Debugging

The API supports the --debug flag for Node.js inspector:

# From the monorepo root
cd apps/api && pnpm start:debug

This runs nest start -b swc --debug --watch, which enables the Node.js debugger on port 9229.

Create or update .vscode/launch.json:

{
	"version": "0.2.0",
	"configurations": [
		{
			"name": "Attach to API",
			"type": "node",
			"request": "attach",
			"port": 9229,
			"restart": true,
			"sourceMaps": true,
			"skipFiles": ["<node_internals>/**"]
		},
		{
			"name": "Debug API Tests",
			"type": "node",
			"request": "launch",
			"runtimeExecutable": "pnpm",
			"runtimeArgs": ["test:debug"],
			"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/apps/api",
			"console": "integratedTerminal"
		},
		{
			"name": "Debug Agent Tests",
			"type": "node",
			"request": "launch",
			"runtimeExecutable": "npx",
			"runtimeArgs": ["jest", "--runInBand", "${relativeFile}"],
			"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/packages/agent",
			"console": "integratedTerminal"
		}
	]
}

Web Debugging

Next.js debugging works through the browser DevTools or VS Code:

{
	"name": "Debug Web (Chrome)",
	"type": "chrome",
	"request": "launch",
	"url": "http://localhost:3000",
	"webRoot": "${workspaceFolder}/apps/web/src"
}

Environment Variable Management

Environment files are scoped per app:

File	Purpose	Committed?
apps/api/.env.example	API template with all variables	Yes
apps/api/.env	Active API configuration	No
apps/web/.env.example	Web template with all variables	Yes
apps/web/.env.local	Active Web configuration	No
.env.compose	Docker Compose shared config	Yes (template)

Variable Precedence

• API: Loaded by @nestjs/config via dotenv. System environment variables take precedence over .env file values.
• Web: Loaded by Next.js. Variables prefixed with NEXT_PUBLIC_ are available in the browser. Server-only variables (no prefix) are only accessible in server components and API routes.

Switching Environments

For testing with different configurations:

# Use a specific env file
cp apps/api/.env.production apps/api/.env

# Or set inline
DATABASE_TYPE=postgres pnpm dev:api

Working with Multiple Packages

A common workflow involves editing a shared package and an app simultaneously.

Example: Editing @ever-works/agent + API

# Terminal 1: Watch and rebuild the agent package
cd packages/agent && pnpm dev

# Terminal 2: Start the API (will pick up agent changes on restart)
pnpm dev:api

Example: Editing a Plugin

# Build and test a single plugin
cd packages/plugins/openai
pnpm build
pnpm test

# Run a specific test file
npx vitest run src/openai.spec.ts

Testing

Running Tests

# All tests across the monorepo
pnpm test

# API tests (Jest)
cd apps/api && pnpm test

# Agent package tests (Jest, 26 suites, 719+ tests)
cd packages/agent && pnpm test
cd packages/agent && pnpm test:watch    # Watch mode
cd packages/agent && pnpm test:cov      # With coverage

# Run a specific test pattern
cd packages/agent && npx jest --testPathPattern='generators'

# Plugin tests (Vitest)
cd packages/plugins/openai && pnpm test
cd packages/plugins/openai && npx vitest run src/openai.spec.ts

Test Frameworks by Package

Package	Framework	Config
apps/api	Jest	jest.config.js
packages/agent	Jest	jest.config.js with module name mappings
packages/plugins/*	Vitest	vitest.config.ts

note

Some packages require their workspace dependencies to be built first. If you get import resolution errors, run pnpm build from the root before testing.

Code Quality Commands

Linting

# Lint all packages
pnpm lint

# Lint a specific app
turbo lint --filter=ever-works-api
turbo lint --filter=ever-works-web

Type-Checking

# Type-check all packages
pnpm type-check

Formatting

Prettier is configured in the root package.json with these settings:

• Print width: 120
• Indentation: tabs (width 4), except SCSS and YAML which use spaces (width 2)
• Single quotes, semicolons always, no trailing commas

# Format all files
pnpm format

# Check formatting without changing files
pnpm format:check

Commit Conventions

Commits follow the Conventional Commits standard. This is a convention held by hand — .husky/commit-msg has been commented out since 2026-02-11 (ee573da0d) and no hook checks it:

feat: add new work template engine
fix: resolve JWT refresh token race condition
docs: update environment variable reference
refactor: extract plugin loader into separate module
test: add missing generator edge case tests
chore: bump turbo to 2.8.12

Database Migrations

When modifying TypeORM entities, generate and run migrations from the apps/api/ work:

cd apps/api

# Generate a migration from entity changes
pnpm migration:generate src/migrations/AddUserPreferences

# Apply pending migrations
pnpm migration:run

# Revert the last migration
pnpm migration:revert

# Show migration status
pnpm migration:show

Trigger.dev (Background Jobs)

For developing background tasks:

# Start the Trigger.dev dev server
pnpm dev:trigger

# Deploy tasks to Trigger.dev Cloud
pnpm deploy:trigger

Next Steps

• Environment Variables Reference -- Complete variable reference
• Monorepo Structure -- Package organization and Turborepo config
• Architecture -- System design and module boundaries