# ResolutionFlow — Dev Environment Setup & Operations Guide

> **Scope:** Stand up a working ResolutionFlow dev environment from scratch on any Linux host (VPS, on-prem Proxmox LXC/VM, bare metal). Self-contained — do not read another doc to get the dev stack running.
> **Last rewritten:** April 2026, post-Hostinger-VPS deprecation, ahead of Proxmox migration.
> **Audience:** You (returning to the project), a teammate, or a fresh Claude Code session.

If you're picking up mid-migration and need to know what code state is on the current branch, read `docs/FlowAssist_Migration/MIGRATION-HANDOFF.md` first.

---

## 1. What this project needs, regardless of host

These are non-negotiable. If your host can't provide them, fix that before anything else.

| Component | Required version | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| **Linux** | any mainstream distro | Ubuntu 22.04+ / Debian 12+ tested; Alpine fine for containers |
| **Python** | 3.11+ | Backend and migrations |
| **Node.js** | 20.19+ | Vite 7 fails on older versions — CLAUDE.md Lesson 63 |
| **PostgreSQL** | 16 | `gen_random_uuid()` + `jsonb` + RLS are all leaned on |
| **Docker + Docker Compose** | recent | Only if you are running Postgres and/or backend as containers |
| **Git** | recent | |

Optional but recommended:

| Tool | Why |
|---|---|
| **code-server** | Browser-based VS Code; how this project has historically been edited |
| **`gh` CLI** | Mirror repo is on GitHub via Gitea; `gh` reads issues and PRs |
| **bun** | Required for the gstack `/browse` + `/qa` skills (CLAUDE.md Lesson 82) |
| **`npx gitnexus analyze`** | Code-graph for Phase 2+ work that touches `unified_chat_service` |
| **Claude Code CLI** | If you want to run Claude Code locally on the host |

---

## 2. Architectural shape

The project is three services plus your editor. Keep these facts in mind regardless of topology:

```
Your browser
   ├─► code-server         (editor, optional — usually port 8080 or behind TLS)
   ├─► frontend (Vite)     (dev server, port 5173)
   └─► backend (FastAPI)   (dev server, port 8000)
                               │
                               └─► PostgreSQL (port 5432)
```

**The frontend calls the backend by URL at runtime.** The frontend does not proxy through the backend. Whatever URL your browser uses to reach the backend is what `VITE_API_URL` must be set to, **baked in at build time**. Changing `VITE_API_URL` requires rebuilding the frontend.

**The backend calls the database by URL at runtime.** The URL depends on where Postgres is relative to the backend — Docker service name if both are in the same compose network, `localhost` if Postgres is native on the same host, or a DNS name if they're in separate containers/VMs.

**CORS is configured explicitly.** The backend's `CORS_ORIGINS` list must include every origin your browser will use to reach the frontend. A missing origin shows up as failed preflight requests.

---

## 3. Topology choices — pick one before you start

The project is agnostic to topology, but each shape has different setup steps.

### Option A — all-in-one LXC/VM/host (simplest)

Postgres, backend, and frontend all run on one Linux host. code-server runs on the same host or a sibling. No Docker required. Best for a single-developer Proxmox LXC.

### Option B — Docker Compose on one host

Postgres, backend, and frontend run as Docker containers on one host. code-server runs outside the compose network (on the host or in another container). This is how the old Hostinger VPS was configured. Best if you want reproducible container images.

### Option C — split services across containers/VMs

Postgres in one container/VM, backend and frontend in another, code-server in a third. Most complex; requires explicit networking between them. Use only if you have a specific reason.

**Pick one and stick with it for the entire setup.** Mixing Options A and B halfway through is where setup runs off the rails.

---

## 4. Per-host configuration

These values are specific to your host. Fill them in once and reference them by name throughout the rest of the doc.

```
DEV_HOST              = <hostname or IP your browser uses, e.g. dev.internal, 10.0.0.42>
DEV_HOST_SCHEME       = <http or https; http is fine for internal dev, https if behind a TLS proxy>
FRONTEND_PORT         = 5173
BACKEND_PORT          = 8000
POSTGRES_PORT         = 5433  # host-side port. 5433 is the recommended default on any shared host to avoid collision with a host-level Postgres. The container's internal port stays 5432.
POSTGRES_DB_NAME      = resolutionflow
POSTGRES_USER         = postgres
POSTGRES_PASSWORD     = <local-dev-password; anything, this is not prod>
SECRET_KEY            = <openssl rand -hex 32 — generate fresh per host, do not reuse>
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY     = <from https://console.anthropic.com>
GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY     = <optional, only if using Gemini as a fallback>
```

Store these somewhere you can copy from during setup. Do not commit them.

> **Naming note:** the canonical database name is `resolutionflow`. If you see `patherly` in a config file, that's drift from an earlier rename and is being swept in a separate commit — use `resolutionflow`. CLAUDE.md tracks the live-code files that still reference `patherly`.

---

## 5. Setup procedure

Run these in order. Stop at the first failure and investigate.

### 5.1 Install system dependencies

```bash
# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y \
  git curl build-essential \
  python3.11 python3.11-venv python3-pip \
  postgresql-client   # not the server — only if running Postgres natively

# Node 20 via nvm (survives container rebuilds if stored in a volume)
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash
export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm" && source "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
nvm install 20
nvm alias default 20
```

For Option B (Docker Compose), also:

```bash
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER   # log out and back in for this to take effect
```

### 5.2 Clone the repo

```bash
git clone https://gitea.resolutionflow.com/chihlasm/resolutionflow.git
# or the GitHub mirror:
# git clone https://github.com/chihlasm/resolutionflow.git
cd resolutionflow

# Check out the working branch if you're continuing mid-migration.
git fetch origin
git checkout feat/flowpilot-migration
```

### 5.3 Start PostgreSQL

**Option A (native Postgres on the host):**

```bash
sudo apt install -y postgresql-16
sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE DATABASE resolutionflow;"
sudo -u postgres psql -c "ALTER USER postgres PASSWORD 'postgres';"
# Adjust pg_hba.conf if you need non-local connections.
```

**Option B (Postgres via Docker Compose):** The repo has a `docker-compose.dev.yml` at the root. Check its Postgres service for the container name, port mapping, and volume. The local compose defaults use container name `resolutionflow_postgres`, database `resolutionflow`, and host-side port `5433` (mapped to the container's internal `5432`) — see CLAUDE.md Lesson 65. The host-side `5433` is the recommended default on any shared host: it keeps the port free for a host-level Postgres if you ever need one. The compose file also defines explicit `command:` directives on both `backend` and `frontend` to force `--host 0.0.0.0`, and expects the caller to pass `REPO_ROOT` (see 5.4) for bind-mount resolution. Confirm what the compose file actually says on your branch before trusting these values.

```bash
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d db
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml logs db    # wait for "ready to accept connections"
```

**Verify:**

```bash
# From the host (Option A) or the backend container/LXC (Option B):
psql -h <db-host> -p <POSTGRES_PORT> -U postgres -d resolutionflow -c "SELECT now();"
```

### 5.4 Write the `.env` files

The repo expects three env files. Create each one:

**`backend/.env`** — backend source of truth:

```bash
APP_NAME=ResolutionFlow
DEBUG=true

# DB URLs — `<db-host>` is `localhost` for Option A, the Docker service name
# (e.g. `db`) for Option B, or the DB container/VM hostname for Option C.
DATABASE_URL=postgresql+asyncpg://postgres:postgres@<db-host>:<POSTGRES_PORT>/resolutionflow
DATABASE_URL_SYNC=postgresql://postgres:postgres@<db-host>:<POSTGRES_PORT>/resolutionflow

# Auth
SECRET_KEY=<SECRET_KEY>
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES=5
REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRE_DAYS=7
REQUIRE_INVITE_CODE=true

# AI providers
AI_PROVIDER=anthropic
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=<ANTHROPIC_API_KEY>
GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY=<GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY or leave unset>

# FlowPilot MCP telemetry — leave on so the Phase 0.5 baseline data keeps accruing
ENABLE_MCP_MICROSOFT_LEARN=true

# CORS + frontend URL
FRONTEND_URL=<DEV_HOST_SCHEME>://<DEV_HOST>:<FRONTEND_PORT>
CORS_ORIGINS=["http://localhost:5173","http://127.0.0.1:5173","<DEV_HOST_SCHEME>://<DEV_HOST>:<FRONTEND_PORT>"]
```

**`frontend/.env.local`** — frontend build-time config:

```bash
VITE_API_URL=<DEV_HOST_SCHEME>://<DEV_HOST>:<BACKEND_PORT>
```

Optional PostHog (CLAUDE.md Lesson 64 — enables product analytics locally):

```bash
VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_KEY=<from PostHog project settings>
VITE_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST=https://us.i.posthog.com
```

**Repo root `.env`** — only needed for Option B (Docker Compose interpolation):

```bash
SECRET_KEY=<SECRET_KEY>
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=<ANTHROPIC_API_KEY>
GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY=<GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY or leave unset>
POSTGRES_PORT=<POSTGRES_PORT>
# Absolute host-side path to the repo root. REQUIRED whenever docker-compose is
# invoked from inside a container (e.g. a code-server container with the host
# Docker socket mounted in). Without it, the bind mounts in
# docker-compose.dev.yml (`${REPO_ROOT}/backend:/app`, `${REPO_ROOT}/frontend:/app`)
# resolve against the CLI's CWD — a path the host daemon cannot see — and
# Docker silently creates empty directories there instead of mounting the code.
# If you run docker compose directly on the host shell, you can set this to `.`
# or the absolute path of the repo; being explicit is safer either way.
REPO_ROOT=/absolute/path/to/resolutionflow
```

> **Never commit any `.env` file.** The `.gitignore` already covers this.

### 5.5 Run the backend setup

**Option A (native):**

```bash
cd backend
python3.11 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Migrate the DB to head.
alembic upgrade head
```

**Option B (Docker):**

```bash
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d backend
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml run --rm backend alembic upgrade head
```

**Expected alembic head** (as of `feat/flowpilot-migration`): `f07010f17b01`. If `alembic current` shows anything else after `upgrade head`, something has gone wrong — stop and investigate.

### 5.6 Seed test users

```bash
# Option A
cd backend && source venv/bin/activate
python -m scripts.seed_test_users

# Option B
docker exec resolutionflow_backend python -m scripts.seed_test_users
```

Test users (all share password `TestPass123!`):

| Email | Role |
|---|---|
| `admin@resolutionflow.example.com` | super admin |
| `teamadmin@resolutionflow.example.com` | team admin |
| `engineer@resolutionflow.example.com` | engineer |
| `pro@resolutionflow.example.com` | solo pro |

### 5.7 Run the backend

**Option A:**

```bash
cd backend && source venv/bin/activate
uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --reload
```

**Option B:** Already running from `docker compose up -d backend`. Tail logs:

```bash
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml logs -f backend
```

**Verify:** `curl <DEV_HOST_SCHEME>://<DEV_HOST>:<BACKEND_PORT>/api/docs` — OpenAPI docs page loads.

### 5.8 Run the frontend

**Option A:**

```bash
cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev -- --host 0.0.0.0 --port 5173
```

**Option B:**

```bash
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d --build frontend
```

**Verify:** Open `<DEV_HOST_SCHEME>://<DEV_HOST>:<FRONTEND_PORT>` in your browser. Log in with one of the test users. Navigate to `/pilot` — the FlowPilot session page should render.

---

## 6. Verification — proof the env actually works

Run these after setup. Every item has a concrete expected outcome.

### 6.1 Database schema is at the right version

```bash
# Option A
cd backend && source venv/bin/activate && alembic current
# Option B
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml run --rm backend alembic current
```

Expected: `f07010f17b01 (head)` on the `feat/flowpilot-migration` branch. On `main`, expected: `074 (head)`.

### 6.2 Alembic reversibility

```bash
alembic downgrade -1    # should complete cleanly
alembic upgrade head    # should return to f07010f17b01
```

If either step fails, the migration has a bug and Phase 2 cannot start.

### 6.3 Prompt-cache hit verification (the deferred Phase 0 TODO)

`backend/app/core/ai_provider.py` module docstring has a `TODO(phase0-verify)` note describing this. Procedure:

1. Confirm `AI_PROVIDER=anthropic` and `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` is set in `backend/.env`.
2. Start the backend with log level INFO or lower.
3. In the UI, open `/pilot` and send a chat message. Wait a few seconds for the response.
4. Send a second chat message in the same session, within 5 minutes of the first.
5. In backend logs, grep for lines containing `anthropic.cache`:

   ```bash
   # Option A
   grep 'anthropic.cache' <log-path>
   # Option B
   docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml logs backend | grep 'anthropic.cache'
   ```

6. Expected: two `anthropic.cache` log events. First has `cache_creation_input_tokens > 0`. Second has `cache_read_input_tokens > 0`.
7. If the second shows zero reads, inspect the prompt prefix for silent invalidators (timestamps, unsorted JSON keys, varying tool list ordering). Fix before proceeding with any Phase 2 work.

### 6.4 Frontend build is TypeScript-clean

```bash
cd frontend
npx tsc -b        # no errors
npm run build     # no errors
```

CLAUDE.md Lesson 105 notes that `npm run build` may fail with an `EACCES` on `dist/` inside code-server — that is a Docker filesystem permission issue, not a real build error. Use `npx tsc -b` to verify TypeScript cleanliness in that case.

### 6.5 `/assistant` → `/pilot` redirect

Open `<DEV_HOST_SCHEME>://<DEV_HOST>:<FRONTEND_PORT>/assistant/<some-real-session-id>` in the browser. Expected: URL changes to `/pilot/<that-id>`; the FlowPilot session page renders. Bare `/assistant` redirects to bare `/pilot`.

### 6.6 Dispatcher de-branching

Navigate to the dashboard. Click a session in `ActiveFlowPilotSessions` or `RecentFlowPilotSessions`. Expected: routes to `/pilot/:id` regardless of the session's `session_type` value. (Check the browser URL bar.)

### 6.7 CORS

Open the browser DevTools Network tab, navigate to any backend-hitting page. Expected: no CORS errors. If you see "blocked by CORS policy," the missing origin needs adding to `backend/.env`'s `CORS_ORIGINS`.

---

## 7. Runbook

Day-to-day commands after setup is complete.

### Restart services

```bash
# Option A
# backend — Ctrl-C and re-run uvicorn
# frontend — Ctrl-C and re-run npm run dev

# Option B
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml restart backend
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d --build frontend    # rebuild required if VITE_* changed
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml down && docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d   # full restart
```

### Apply a new migration

```bash
# Option A
cd backend && source venv/bin/activate && alembic upgrade head
# Option B
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml run --rm backend alembic upgrade head
```

### Create a new migration

```bash
# Option A
cd backend && source venv/bin/activate
alembic revision -m "short description"        # manual, preferred per CLAUDE.md Lesson 77
# OR
alembic revision --autogenerate -m "description"  # pulls in drift; review carefully
```

Never pass `--rev-id` — let Alembic generate the hex hash.

### Inspect the database

```bash
# Option A (native Postgres)
psql -h localhost -p 5432 -U postgres -d resolutionflow

# Option B (Docker)
docker exec -it resolutionflow_postgres psql -U postgres -d resolutionflow
```

### Run tests

```bash
# Option A
cd backend && source venv/bin/activate
pytest --override-ini="addopts="

# Option B
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml run --rm backend pytest --override-ini="addopts="
```

First time only, create the test database:

```bash
# Option A
sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE DATABASE resolutionflow_test;"

# Option B
docker exec -it resolutionflow_postgres psql -U postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE resolutionflow_test;"
```

### View backend logs

```bash
# Option A: wherever you ran uvicorn
# Option B
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml logs -f --tail=100 backend
```

Structured events to grep for:
- `anthropic.cache` — prompt-cache hit/creation telemetry (Phase 0.1)
- `mcp.turn` — per-turn MCP availability/invocation (Phase 0.5)
- `mcp.fallback` — MCP silent-retry fallback fired (Phase 0.5)

---

## 8. Troubleshooting

### CORS errors in the browser

The backend did not accept the origin your browser used. Check `backend/.env`'s `CORS_ORIGINS` — it must include the exact scheme + host + port the browser sent. Restart the backend after editing.

### `VITE_API_URL` points at the wrong place

The frontend was built with a stale value. Rebuild the frontend. Option B: `docker compose up -d --build frontend`. Option A: restart `npm run dev`.

### `alembic upgrade head` fails with "target database is not up to date"

Your DB migration chain is out of sync with the code. On a dev box, the safe recovery is to drop the DB and re-migrate from scratch:

```bash
# Option A
sudo -u postgres psql -c "DROP DATABASE resolutionflow;" -c "CREATE DATABASE resolutionflow;"
cd backend && source venv/bin/activate && alembic upgrade head

# Option B
docker exec resolutionflow_postgres psql -U postgres -c "DROP DATABASE resolutionflow;" -c "CREATE DATABASE resolutionflow;"
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml run --rm backend alembic upgrade head
```

Only do this on a dev box — it destroys all local data.

### `alembic heads` shows more than one head

Only on a local branch that has diverged from `origin/main`. Production `main` has a single head. If this happens on a fresh clone, one of your local migration files has the wrong `down_revision`. Inspect each file's `down_revision` and reconnect the chain.

### Frontend build fails with "EACCES: permission denied" on `dist/`

Filesystem permission issue inside the code-server container (CLAUDE.md Lesson 105). TypeScript compilation itself completes — use `npx tsc -b` to verify cleanliness without needing to write to `dist/`.

### Backend/frontend containers start but `/app` is empty (no code mounted)

Almost always a `REPO_ROOT` problem. `docker-compose.dev.yml` uses `${REPO_ROOT}/backend:/app` and `${REPO_ROOT}/frontend:/app` bind mounts. If `REPO_ROOT` is unset, or set to a path that doesn't exist *on the Docker host* (not inside the code-server container), Docker silently creates an empty directory at that path and mounts it — the containers come up but have no source code. Symptom: backend returns import errors, or frontend serves a default Vite page. Fix: set `REPO_ROOT` in the repo-root `.env` to the absolute host-side path to the repo, then `docker compose down && docker compose up -d`. See 5.4 for the full note. This matters specifically when `docker compose` is invoked from inside a container (e.g. code-server with the host Docker socket mounted) — the CLI's CWD is container-local but the daemon resolves paths against the host filesystem.

### Frontend shows "Blocked request. This host is not allowed" in the browser

Vite 5+ ships DNS-rebinding protection that rejects any `Host:` header not in `server.allowedHosts`. The browser's hostname must be in that list. Edit `frontend/vite.config.ts` — the `server.allowedHosts` array should include every hostname you reach the dev server from (e.g. `'docker-01'`, `'localhost'`, `.ts.net` as a wildcard for Tailscale MagicDNS). Restart the Vite dev server (for Option B: `docker compose restart frontend`). This is unrelated to CORS — Vite blocks the request before any app code runs.

### `docker` command not found inside code-server

If your code-server is itself inside a container, Docker is probably not exposed to it. CLAUDE.md Lesson 103 was written for this case on the old VPS. On Proxmox, the fix depends on topology — either SSH to the host to run Docker commands, or mount the host's Docker socket into the code-server container.

### Backend returns 500 with `InsufficientPrivilegeError: new row violates row-level security policy`

RLS is enabled on a table your code wrote to without the right `account_id`. CLAUDE.md Lessons 107, 108, 110 cover this family of bugs. The fix is always at the service layer: make sure every model creation passes `account_id=` explicitly, and that startup routines that touch tenant-isolated tables use `_admin_session_factory()` rather than `get_db()`.

### Anthropic cache reads are zero on the second turn

Something in the cached prefix is changing between turns. Inspect the system-block list and the first N history messages for timestamps, `datetime.now()`, unsorted dict keys in JSON prompts, or varying tool-list order. The `anthropic.cache` telemetry shows exactly how many tokens were read vs created — use it to narrow down the invalidator.

---

## 9. Security posture for dev environments

This doc is about dev, not production. But:

- Never commit `.env` files. The `.gitignore` covers this.
- `SECRET_KEY` should be generated per-host, not reused across environments.
- `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` is billable — rotate if leaked into logs or chat.
- Postgres on a dev host should not be exposed to the internet. Bind it to `127.0.0.1` or to a private network interface only.
- If you expose the frontend or backend publicly (for teammates to test against), put it behind TLS with a real certificate. Do not let dev credentials travel over plain HTTP on the public internet.

---

## 10. What's not in this doc

- **Production deployment.** This is a dev-env doc. Production lives on Railway — see `CLAUDE.md`'s Deployment section.
- **How to set up Traefik or any particular reverse proxy.** Whichever proxy you use is your choice; the dev stack just needs something that routes `<host>:5173` and `<host>:8000` to the right services. **Direct port exposure over a private network** (Tailscale, WireGuard, a VPN, or a LAN behind a firewall) is a fully supported option for dev and is what the homelab reference topology in Section 11 uses — no reverse proxy, no TLS, just `http://<host>:5173` and `http://<host>:8000` reachable only from the private network. That's a perfectly reasonable choice; it's just not the only one.
- **How to configure code-server itself.** Install it however you prefer (native, Docker, LXC); point it at the repo, and the rest of this doc applies.
- **Where to host the Proxmox instance.** Up to you.

If something in this doc turns out to be wrong on your host, fix the doc. This is a living document — the whole point of rewriting it from the Hostinger-specific version was to make it survive host changes.

---

## 11. Reference topology: homelab Proxmox + code-server (Option B)

This section documents the first concrete host instantiation since the April 2026 host-agnostic rewrite. It's a worked example, not the canonical topology — Section 3's Option A/B/C framing still stands. If your setup looks different, follow Sections 1–10 and ignore this appendix.

### 11.1 Host

- **Hypervisor:** Proxmox (homelab).
- **VM:** `docker-01`, Debian 13, running Docker Engine + Docker Compose natively.
- **Tailscale IP:** `100.64.78.44`. MagicDNS hostname: `docker-01` (and the full `.ts.net` FQDN).
- **code-server:** runs on the same VM in its own container, with the host's Docker socket mounted in so it can drive `docker compose`. Its workspace bind-mounts the repo at `/opt/docker/code-server/workspace/resolutionflow`.

This is a concrete instance of Option B from Section 3: Postgres, backend, and frontend all run as containers from `docker-compose.dev.yml`; the editor lives outside that compose network.

### 11.2 Access pattern — direct port over Tailscale, no reverse proxy

The browser reaches the dev stack directly:

- Frontend: `http://docker-01:5173`
- Backend: `http://docker-01:8000`
- Backend API docs: `http://docker-01:8000/api/docs`

There is **no Caddy, no Traefik, no nginx, no TLS, no basic auth** in front of either service. The tailnet provides the wire encryption and access control — only devices on the tailnet can resolve `docker-01` or reach `100.64.78.44`, and Tailscale ACLs decide which of those devices are allowed to connect.

Why this choice:

- **Zero routing config to maintain.** There is no proxy rulebook to keep in sync with new services. Add a container, expose a port, you're done.
- **Backend-to-backend services stay private.** Redis, Celery workers, the planned ConnectWise proxy, the MCP server — none of them need to be reachable from the browser, so none of them need proxy rules. They stay inside the `resolutionflow` Docker network and talk by service name. The proxy would only ever have carried frontend and backend traffic, so the proxy's value was small relative to its maintenance cost.
- **Debuggability.** `curl http://docker-01:8000/api/docs` from any tailnet device works without auth headers, TLS handshakes, or DNS shenanigans.

Tradeoff: **this only works because every client device is on the tailnet.** If someone needed to test from a non-tailnet device, they'd either join the tailnet or we'd need to front the stack with a proxy. For the current single-developer setup, the tailnet-only assumption holds.

### 11.3 Per-host config values (as actually configured on `docker-01`)

Plugging these into Section 4's template:

```
DEV_HOST              = docker-01
DEV_HOST_SCHEME       = http
FRONTEND_PORT         = 5173
BACKEND_PORT          = 8000
POSTGRES_PORT         = 5433         # host-side; container-internal stays 5432
POSTGRES_DB_NAME      = resolutionflow
POSTGRES_USER         = postgres
POSTGRES_PASSWORD     = postgres     # local-dev only
SECRET_KEY            = <generated per host; do not reuse>
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY     = <from console.anthropic.com>
GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY     = <unset; Anthropic is sole provider in dev>
```

And the repo-root `.env` that `docker-compose.dev.yml` interpolates from:

```bash
SECRET_KEY=<redacted>
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=<redacted>
POSTGRES_PORT=5433
REPO_ROOT=/opt/docker/code-server/workspace/resolutionflow
```

### 11.4 Why `REPO_ROOT` is non-optional on this host

code-server runs inside a container. When you open a terminal in code-server and run `docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d`, the Docker CLI talks to the *host* daemon via the mounted socket — but the CWD it reports (`/config/workspace/resolutionflow`) is a path that only exists inside the code-server container. The host daemon has never heard of it.

Relative bind mounts like `./backend:/app` therefore resolve against a path the host can't see, and Docker silently creates empty directories there rather than erroring out. The containers come up, but `/app` is empty.

`docker-compose.dev.yml` sidesteps this by using `${REPO_ROOT}/backend:/app` and `${REPO_ROOT}/frontend:/app`. `REPO_ROOT` must be set to the absolute path **on the host** (`/opt/docker/code-server/workspace/resolutionflow`), not the path inside the code-server container. Same contents, different mount point, different name.

If you ever run `docker compose` directly from a host shell (SSH'd into `docker-01`), set `REPO_ROOT` to `.` or the absolute host path. Being explicit is always safe; leaving it unset is the failure mode.

### 11.5 Vite `server.allowedHosts` — required for `docker-01` to resolve

Vite 5+ rejects any `Host:` header not in `server.allowedHosts` (DNS-rebinding protection). `frontend/vite.config.ts` has:

```ts
server: {
  host: '0.0.0.0',
  allowedHosts: ['docker-01', '.ts.net', 'localhost'],
  ...
}
```

- `docker-01` — the MagicDNS short name the browser uses day-to-day.
- `.ts.net` — wildcard for the full Tailscale MagicDNS FQDN, in case anyone uses it.
- `localhost` — for the "am I serving anything at all" smoke-test from inside the container.

If you move this setup to a different host, add that host's hostname to `allowedHosts` or the browser will see "Blocked request. This host is not allowed." See Section 8's troubleshooting entry for the full symptom/fix.

### 11.6 CORS origins on this host

The `backend` service's `CORS_ORIGINS` environment variable is pinned in the compose file to:

```
["http://localhost:5173","http://127.0.0.1:5173","http://docker-01:5173","http://100.64.78.44:5173"]
```

The last two are what make browser calls from tailnet clients work — they cover both MagicDNS (`docker-01`) and the raw Tailscale IP. If you add a new hostname to reach the frontend from, also add the matching origin here and restart the backend.

### 11.7 Compose file shape (as of this writing)

`docker-compose.dev.yml` has been through a round of cleanup for this topology. Specifics worth knowing if you're comparing against older revisions of the file:

- **No Traefik labels.** They were removed — nothing in this topology uses Traefik.
- **No Hostinger-VPS-era origins** in `CORS_ORIGINS`.
- `Dockerfile.dev` for both `backend` and `frontend` is still the build source — this didn't change.
- Explicit `command:` directives on both `backend` (`uvicorn app.main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --reload`) and `frontend` (`npm run dev -- --host 0.0.0.0 --port 5173`) — this guarantees `--host 0.0.0.0` regardless of what's baked into the image, so the services listen on all interfaces and are reachable from outside the container.
- `REPO_ROOT` is interpolated into both service volume mounts (see 11.4).

If you're adapting the file for a different host, the things most likely to need editing are `REPO_ROOT` (see 11.4), `CORS_ORIGINS` (see 11.6), `FRONTEND_URL`, `VITE_API_URL`, and `POSTGRES_PORT` if you want something other than `5433`.

### 11.8 End-to-end sanity check for this topology

From any device on the tailnet:

```bash
# Backend reachable
curl -sSf http://docker-01:8000/api/docs >/dev/null && echo OK

# Frontend reachable
curl -sSf http://docker-01:5173 >/dev/null && echo OK

# Alembic head matches the branch expectation
docker exec resolutionflow_backend alembic current
# expect f07010f17b01 on feat/flowpilot-migration, 074 on main

# Postgres is alive inside the compose network
docker exec resolutionflow_postgres psql -U postgres -d resolutionflow -c "SELECT now();"
```

All four passing = the dev environment is live end-to-end.
