FoodTruckNerds Onboarding

Welcome to the FoodTruckNerds workspace! This guide will help you get set up and start contributing.

Quick Start

The easiest way to get started is the Developer Setup GUI: Download the latest release from the FoodTruckNerdz/onboarding repository (Tauri desktop app). That is the pre-built app — see Installing the Developer Setup GUI for per-platform file names, Assets layout, and chmod on macOS and Linux.

  1. Download a standalone binary for your OS from the latest link above. Release assets are unbundled executables for Windows, macOS, and Linux (e.g. setup-gui-...), plus STANDALONE-README.txt (duplicate chmod hints for out-of-context visitors). This project does not publish .msi / NSIS / .dmg installers from CI.

  2. Windows: run the *.exe. macOS / Linux: in a terminal, chmod +x the downloaded file if needed, then ./setup-gui-... (see Installing for full examples).

  3. Follow the setup wizard to:

    • Check prerequisites (Node.js, Corepack, pnpm)

    • Configure environment variables

    • Install project dependencies

    • Set up required service accounts

To learn what the app is and how it fits the docs, start at Developer Setup GUI (overview), or go straight to Installing / Developing depending on whether you use a published binary or build from source.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

  • Node.js 24.x installed

  • Git configured

  • Access to the FoodTruckNerds GitHub organization

  • Accounts for required services (see below)

Required Services

You’ll need accounts for the following services:

The Developer Setup GUI will guide you through obtaining and configuring API keys for these services.

Workspace Structure

The FoodTruckNerds workspace contains multiple projects:

  • ftn-site — Main Next.js web application

  • setup-gui — Developer Setup GUI application (Tauri; lives in the onboarding repository)

  • Additional projects as they are added

Next Steps

After completing the initial setup:

  1. Project Templates: When starting a new project or updating workspace settings, browse the Standard Project Templates repository for industry-standard configurations and extension recommendations.

  2. Review project-specific documentation

  3. Familiarize yourself with the codebase

  4. Check out the development workflow

  5. Join team communication channels

Getting Help

If you run into issues during onboarding:

  1. Check Installing and the Developer Setup GUI overview

  2. If you are hacking on the app itself, see Developing

  3. Read PowerShell scripts for script behavior

  4. Ask in team channels

  5. Open an issue in the relevant repository