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, via rustup:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

RabbitMQ running locally
Linux build dependencies (Debian/Ubuntu):
```
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev
```
- build-essential provides cc/make/libc headers — without it the build fails with linker `cc` not found.
- pkg-config + libssl-dev let openssl-sys (pulled in via native-tls) find the system OpenSSL install.

Build Steps

Clone the repository:

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

Build the default workspace members:

cargo build --release

This builds the service, node, and TUI (praxis) components.

Cross-Compiling the Node for Windows

To build praxis_node.exe for Windows targets from a Linux host:

sudo apt-get install -y mingw-w64
rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-gnu
cargo build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnu -p praxis_node

mingw-w64 provides the x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc cross-linker that cargo uses for this target. The resulting binary is at target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnu/release/praxis_node.exe. This is the same toolchain the installer uses for --with-win-node --src (see Installation).

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:

Variable	Default	Description
`PRAXIS_RABBITMQ_URL`	`amqp://praxis:praxis@localhost:5672`	RabbitMQ connection
`PRAXIS_DATABASE_URL`	`~/.praxis/operations.db`	Database path
`RUST_LOG`	`info`	Log level

Database Options

SQLite is used by default with no configuration required.

For PostgreSQL or advanced configuration, see Database Configuration.

Development Workflow

Code Changes

Make changes to Rust code
Rebuild: cargo build
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.

Praxis Documentation