# Contributing to Meshery Server

> How to contribute to Meshery Server

---

LLMS index: [llms.txt](/llms.txt)

---

As a new contributor, you’re going to want to familiarize with the project in order to resolve the issues in the best way. Installing and playing around with Meshery will give you context for any issues that you might work on.

Once an issue has been addressed, you’ll need to test it as well. Ideally, these tests are run from the user’s perspective (someone running Meshery in a container), not from a contributor’s perspective (someone running Meshery as a locally-compiled service).

## Compiling and Running Meshery server

To build and run Meshery server from source:

1. First, build the static assets for the UI by running



<pre class="codeblock-pre">
	<div class="codeblock">
		<code class="clipboardjs">make ui-setup
make ui-build</code>
	</div>
</pre>


2. Next, build & run the server code by running



<pre class="codeblock-pre">
	<div class="codeblock">
		<code class="clipboardjs">make server</code>
	</div>
</pre>


Any time changes are made to the Go code, you will have to stop the server and run the above command again.
Once the Meshery server is up and running, you should be able to access Meshery on your `localhost` on port `9081` at `http://localhost:9081`. One thing to note, you might NOT see the [Meshery UI](/project/contributing/ui/ui/#contributing-ui) until the UI code is built as well.
After running Meshery server, you will need to select your **Cloud Provider** by navigating to `localhost:9081`. Only then you will be able to use the Meshery UI on port `3000`.

**Please note**: If you get error while starting the server as **"Meshery Development Incompatible"** then follow the below guideline 👇

<a href="../images/meshery-development-incompatible-error.png">
  <img style= "max-width: 450px;" src="../images/meshery-development-incompatible-error.png" />
</a>

Potential Solution:

- Go to your meshery folder in your local-system where you’ve cloned it.
  Execute:

- `git remote add upstream https://github.com/meshery/meshery`
- `git fetch upstream`
- Restart the meshery server
- Additionally, before restarting the server, if you like to pull the latest changes, you can do: `git pull upstream master`

#### Building Docker image

To build a Docker image of Meshery, please ensure you have `Docker` installed to be able to build the image. Now, run the following command to build the Docker image:



<pre class="codeblock-pre">
	<div class="codeblock">
		<code class="clipboardjs">make docker-build</code>
	</div>
</pre>


#### Define and validate errors

Every Golang-based component within the Meshery ecosystem incorporates a utility to define and manage error messages for every error instance. This is internally done with several make commands, but one can explicitly validate with the help of the following make command. This checks and validates the errors that are present in the particular project.



<pre class="codeblock-pre">
	<div class="codeblock">
		<code class="clipboardjs">make error</code>
	</div>
</pre>


For more details, <a href="/project/contributing/contributing-error/">Error Utility</a>

#### Lint the server



<pre class="codeblock-pre">
	<div class="codeblock">
		<code class="clipboardjs">make golangci</code>
	</div>
</pre>


This runs `golangci-lint` plus Meshery's repo-specific Go rules - notably the
one that fails the build when a `gorm` `ORDER BY` clause is built from a value
that is neither a constant nor a result of `models.SanitizeOrderInput`. The same rules run in
CI's `golangci-lint-server` job. For what each rule protects and what to do when
one fires, see <a href="/project/contributing/contributing-lint/">Go Lint Rules</a>.

### Configuring Log levels at Runtime

The server log levels can be configured at runtime by changing the env variable `LOG_LEVEL` defined in file [`server-config.env`](https://github.com/meshery/meshery/blob/master/server/cmd/server-config.env). The configuration library (`viper`) watches for the env file, any change in the file content results in the `file_system` event to be emitted and the log level is updated accordingly.

**_Should there be any alterations to the location or name of the environment file, it will result in the inability to configure log levels during runtime. In the event of such modifications, it is essential to update the server to preserve proper functionality._**

```Available Meshery Server log levels are:
 - Panic - 0
 - Fatal - 1
 - Error - 2
 - Warn  - 3
 - Info  - 4
 - Debug - 5
 - Trace level - 6
```

The default setting for the `LOG_LEVEL` is `4` (Info). However, if the `DEBUG` environmental variable is configured as `TRUE`, it supersedes the value set in the `LOG_LEVEL` environmental variable, and the logging level is then adjusted to `5`(Debug).

### Runtime Configuration Environment Variables

Meshery Server supports a broader set of runtime, provider, tracing, policy, and metadata environment variables than the contributor-specific subset that used to be documented here.

Use the canonical reference instead: [Meshery Server Environment Variables](/installation/advanced/environment-variables/).

### Using custom Meshkit code for Meshery server development

<ol>
  <li>
    <p>Checkout <strong>meshery</strong> and <strong>meshkit</strong> repository in adjacent directories.</p>
    
    
    <pre class="codeblock-pre">
    	<div class="codeblock">
    		<code class="clipboardjs">$ git clone https://github.com/meshery/meshery.git
        $ git clone https://github.com/meshery/meshkit.git</code>
    	</div>
    </pre>

  </li>
  <li>
    <p>In your <code>meshery</code> go.mod, update the meshkit package.</p>
    
    
    <pre class="codeblock-pre">
    	<div class="codeblock">
    		<code class="clipboardjs">github.com/meshery/meshkit =&gt; ../meshkit</code>
    	</div>
    </pre>

    <p>Remember to remove this go.mod change when creating pull requests.</p>
  </li>
</ol>