Local Development

This guide is for contributors working on Praxis itself. To install Praxis, use the one-liner installer:

curl -fsSL https://praxis.originhq.com/install.sh | bash

See Installation for all install options.

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.70+ with cargo
• RabbitMQ running locally

Build Steps

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/originsec/praxis.git
cd praxis

2. Build the default workspace members:

cargo build --release

This builds the service, node, and CLI components. The web component is not part of the default build; use the TUI (praxis) as the client.

Running Locally

Start RabbitMQ

If not using Docker:

# Linux
sudo systemctl start rabbitmq-server

Create the praxis user:

rabbitmqctl add_user praxis praxis
rabbitmqctl set_permissions -p / praxis ".*" ".*" ".*"

Start the Service

cargo run --release --bin praxis_service

The service starts and connects to RabbitMQ, creating necessary queues.

Start a Node

For testing locally, run a node on your own machine:

cargo run --release --bin praxis_node

The node connects to RabbitMQ and registers with the service.

Environment Variables

Configure via environment or .env file:

Database Options

SQLite is used by default with no configuration required.

For PostgreSQL or advanced configuration, see Database Configuration.

Development Workflow

Code Changes

1. Make changes to Rust code
2. Rebuild: cargo build
3. Restart affected component

Testing

Run tests:

cargo test

Logs

Adjust log verbosity:

RUST_LOG=debug cargo run --bin praxis_service
RUST_LOG=praxis_node::intercept=trace cargo run --bin praxis_node

Common Issues

RabbitMQ connection failed

• Verify RabbitMQ is running
• Check credentials match
• Ensure the PRAXIS_RABBITMQ_URL is correct

Database errors

• Check file permissions for SQLite
• Verify PostgreSQL is running and accessible
• Check the connection URL format

Node not appearing

• Verify the node connected to RabbitMQ
• Check node logs for errors
• Ensure service is running

Multiple Nodes

You can run multiple nodes locally (useful for testing):

# Terminal 1
cargo run --bin praxis_node

# Terminal 2
cargo run --bin praxis_node

Each node gets a unique ID and appears separately in the TUI.

Debugging

Enable debug logging

RUST_LOG=debug cargo run --bin praxis_service

Check RabbitMQ queues

Open http://localhost:15672 (praxis/praxis) to see queue activity.