Local Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• pnpm (9.x+)
• PostgreSQL (Homebrew: brew install postgresql@17)
• Docker (for RabbitMQ via Docker Compose)
• cloudflared (optional: brew install cloudflared)

Installation

git clone <repo-url> mtl-rent
cd mtl-rent
pnpm install

Database Setup

# Create the database
createdb mtl_rent

# Copy environment file
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env if needed (DATABASE_URL, JWT_SECRET, RESEND_API_KEY, etc.)

# Run migrations
pnpm db:migrate

# Seed with sample data (neighborhoods + demo listings)
pnpm db:seed

RabbitMQ Setup

RabbitMQ is the message broker for the scraper pipeline and email queue.

# Start RabbitMQ via Docker Compose
docker compose up -d

RabbitMQ Management UI is available at http://localhost:15672 (guest/guest by default).

Running

Services run via pm2 (not pnpm dev directly):

# Start all services (API + Web + Admin + Docs + Scraper + Tunnel)
pm2 start pnpm --name "mtl-rent" --cwd /path/to/mtl-rent -- dev

# Check status
pm2 status

# Watch logs
pm2 logs mtl-rent

# Restart after code changes
pm2 restart mtl-rent

# After database schema changes
pnpm --filter @mtl-rent/database build && pm2 restart mtl-rent

# After migration changes
pnpm db:migrate && pm2 restart mtl-rent

This starts all services concurrently:

• API at http://localhost:3001 (Swagger docs at /docs)
• Web at http://localhost:3000
• Admin at http://localhost:3002
• Docs at http://localhost:5174
• Cloudflare Tunnel exposing all services publicly

The scraper worker runs as a separate pm2 process (mtl-scraper).

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
DATABASE_URL	postgresql://localhost/mtl_rent	PostgreSQL connection string
API_PORT	3001	Fastify API port
JWT_SECRET	dev-secret-change-in-production	JWT signing secret
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL	http://localhost:3001	API URL for frontend
NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY	—	Google Maps API key
GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY	—	Google Maps API key (server-side geocoding)
AMQP_URL	amqp://localhost:5672	RabbitMQ connection for scraper pipeline
ADMIN_USER	admin	Admin dashboard username
ADMIN_PASS	admin	Admin dashboard password

Useful Commands

pm2 status               # Check service status
pm2 logs mtl-rent        # Watch logs
pm2 restart mtl-rent     # Restart services
pnpm db:generate         # Generate migrations from schema changes
pnpm db:migrate          # Apply migrations
pnpm db:seed             # Seed sample data
pnpm db:studio           # Open Drizzle Studio
docker compose up -d     # Start RabbitMQ
docker compose down      # Stop RabbitMQ