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Prerequisites

Before you can run Dashify on your laptop, your machine needs five things. None of them are exotic. If you have done any modern web development in the last two years, you probably already have most of them.

The list​

ToolWhat it isMinimum version
Node.jsThe runtime that executes the API server, the worker, and the build tooling.20.x
pnpmA faster, disk-friendly alternative to npm. The whole repository is set up to use it.10.x
Docker DesktopThe tool that runs MongoDB, Redis, Qdrant, Ollama and a few other services as little isolated boxes on your machine.4.30+
GitSource control. You almost certainly already have it.Any modern version
A code editorVS Code is what the project is most polished for, but anything works.,

Why these specific tools​

Node.js 20 is the long-term support release. Every test, build script, and Docker image targets it. Older versions will fail with cryptic errors about import syntax or missing globals. Newer versions usually work but are not part of the test matrix.

pnpm is used instead of npm because the project is a monorepo: it contains the API server, the browser client, and this documentation site as separate packages that share dependencies. pnpm understands monorepos natively and stores each dependency once on disk, which saves several gigabytes compared to npm.

Docker is used so you do not have to install MongoDB, Redis, Qdrant, and Ollama directly on your laptop. You run one command and Docker spins them all up in their own containers, all networked together, all reachable on localhost. When you are done you stop them and your machine is exactly as clean as before.

Git is how you check out the code from GitHub. Pretty much non-negotiable in modern engineering.

Install in one stroke (macOS)​

If you have Homebrew installed:

brew install node@20 pnpm git
brew install --cask docker

Then open Docker Desktop once so it can finish initialising.

Install in one stroke (Windows)​

Use the official installers for Node.js 20, Docker Desktop, and Git for Windows. Then enable pnpm:

corepack enable
corepack prepare pnpm@latest --activate

Install in one stroke (Ubuntu / Debian)​

# Node 20
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs git

# pnpm
corepack enable
corepack prepare pnpm@latest --activate

# Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER  # log out and back in after this

Verifying​

Once everything is installed, run these in a terminal. Each should print a version number:

node --version    # v20.x
pnpm --version    # 10.x
docker --version  # 4.x
git --version     # any

If any one of them errors, fix that one before continuing. The rest of the setup assumes all four work.

Hardware note​

Dashify is a real platform with eight or so containers running simultaneously. You will be a lot happier on a machine with at least 16 GB of RAM and 20 GB of free disk space. The on prem AI containers (Ollama and Qdrant) are the heaviest, if your laptop is tight on resources you can skip those two and the platform still runs, just without the AI assistant.

What's next​

Now that the tooling is in place, the next page walks you through cloning the repo, installing dependencies, configuring environment variables, and bringing the whole stack up for the first time.

Key takeaways​

  • Five tools are required: Node 20, pnpm 10, Docker, Git, and an editor.
  • pnpm is used because Dashify is a monorepo.
  • Docker keeps your laptop clean by running all the databases and AI services in containers.
  • Aim for 16 GB of RAM and 20 GB of free disk for the full stack.
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