memos/docs/development-windows.md

Development in Windows

Memos is built with a curated tech stack. It is optimized for developer experience and is very easy to start working on the code:

1. It has no external dependency.
2. It requires zero config.
3. 1 command to start backend and 1 command to start frontend, both with live reload support.

Tech Stack

Frontend	Backend
React	Go
Tailwind CSS	SQLite
Vite
pnpm

Prerequisites

• Go
• Air for backend live reload
• Node.js
• pnpm

Steps

(Using PowerShell)

1. pull source code

   git clone https://github.com/usememos/memos
   # or
   gh repo clone usememos/memos
   

2. cd into the project root directory

   cd memos
   

3. start backend using air (with live reload)

   air -c .\scripts\.air-windows.toml
   

4. start frontend dev server

   cd web; pnpm i; pnpm dev
   

Memos should now be running at http://localhost:3001 and changing either frontend or backend code would trigger live reload.

Building

Frontend must be built before backend. The built frontend must be placed in the backend ./server/frontend/dist directory. Otherwise, you will get a "No frontend embedded" error.

Frontend

Move-Item "./server/frontend/dist" "./server/frontend/dist.bak"
cd web; pnpm i --frozen-lockfile; pnpm build; cd ..;
Move-Item "./web/dist" "./server/" -Force

Backend

go build -o ./build/memos.exe ./bin/memos/main.go

❕ Notes

• Start development servers easier by running the provided start.ps1 script. This will start both backend and frontend in detached PowerShell windows:

  .\scripts\start.ps1
  

• Produce a local build easier using the provided build.ps1 script to build both frontend and backend:

  .\scripts\build.ps1
  

This will produce a memos.exe file in the ./build directory.