Prerequisites¶

Before you begin development, ensure you have the following tools and accounts set up.

Required Software¶

Node.js and npm¶

Version: Node.js 20+ with npm

bash

# Check version
node --version  # Should be v20.x.x or higher
npm --version   # Should be 10.x.x or higher

# Install from https://nodejs.org/

Python & uv¶

Version: Python 3.11+ with uv package manager

bash

# Check Python version
python --version  # Should be 3.11.x or higher

# Install uv (fast Python package manager)
# Windows (PowerShell)
powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

# macOS/Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Verify installation
uv --version

Docker Desktop¶

Required for: Local development and testing

bash

# Check installation
docker --version
docker-compose --version

# Install from https://docker.com/products/docker-desktop

Git¶

bash

git --version
# Install from https://git-scm.com/

Azure CLI¶

Required for: Azure deployments

bash

az --version
# Install from https://docs.microsoft.com/cli/azure/install-azure-cli

Required Accounts¶

Account	Purpose
Azure subscription	Contributor or Owner role; estimated cost $10–25/month
GitHub account	Version control + GitHub Actions CI/CD
Gmail account	SMTP email delivery — use an App Password, not your real one

Verification¶

bash

node --version   # v20.x.x+
python --version # 3.11.x+
docker --version
az --version
git --version

All tools should return version information without errors.

Troubleshooting¶

Node.js version issues¶

Use nvm:

bash

nvm install 20
nvm use 20

Python version issues¶

bash

uv python install 3.11
uv python pin 3.11

Docker permission issues (Linux)¶

bash

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
# Log out and back in

Next Steps¶

Local Setup — clone, install, configure .env, and run the dev servers

Page history

Field	Value
Last updated	2026-03-20

Changelog

Date	PRs	Summary
2026-03-20	#81	New page: moved from getting-started/ into Development section; single authoritative source for tooling requirements