This guide helps you get started developing Grafana on macOS.
## Dependencies
Make sure you have the following dependencies installed before moving on to set up your developer environment:
-[Git](https://git-scm.com/)
-[Go](https://golang.org/dl/)
-[Node.js (Long Term Support)](https://nodejs.org)
-[Yarn](https://yarnpkg.com)
We recommend using [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) for installing any missing dependencies:
```
brew install git
brew install go
brew install node
npm install -g yarn
```
## Download Grafana
We recommend using Go to download the source code for the Grafana project:
1. Add `export GOPATH=$HOME/go/` to the bottom of your `$HOME/.bash_profile`.
1. Open a terminal and run `go get github.com/grafana/` in your terminal. This command downloads, and installs Grafana to your `$GOPATH`.
1. Open `$GOPATH/src/github.com/grafana/grafana` in your favorite code editor.
## Build Grafana
Grafana consists of two components; the _frontend_, and the _backend_.
### Frontend
Before we can build the frontend assets, we need to install the dependencies:
```
yarn install --pure-lockfile
```
When this is done, we can start building our source code:
```
yarn start
```
Once `yarn start` has built the assets it will continue to do so whenever any of the files change. This means you don't have to manually build the assets whenever you've made a change to the code.
Next, we'll build the web server that will serve the frontend assets we just built.
### Backend
Build and run the backend, by running `make run` in the root directory of the repository. This command will compile the Go source code, and start a web server.
By default, the web server will be served at `http://localhost:3000/`.
Log in using the default credentials:
| username | password |
|----------|----------|
| `admin` | `admin` |
When you log in for the first time, you'll be asked to change your password.
## Test Grafana
The tests for the frontend are written using [jest](https://jestjs.io/). Run them using yarn:
```
yarn jest
```
If you're developing for the backend, run the tests with the standard Go tool:
```
go test -v ./pkg/...
```
## Add data sources
By now, you should be able to build and test a change you've made to the Grafana source code. Most likely though, you're going to need to add a few data sources to verify the change you made.
To set up data sources for your development environment, go to the `devenv` directory in the Grafana repository:
```
cd devenv
```
Run the `setup.sh` script to setup a set of data sources and dashboards in your local Grafana. Data sources are named **gdev-\<type\>**, and dashboards are located in a folder called **gdev dashboards**.
Some of the data sources require databases to run in the background.
Installing and configuring databases can be a tricky business. Grafana uses [Docker](https://docker.com) to make the task of setting up databases a little easier. Make sure you [install Docker](https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/install/) before proceeding to the next step.
In the root directory of your Grafana repository, run the following command:
```
make devenv sources=influxdb,loki
```
The script generates a Docker Compose file with the databases you specify as `sources`, and runs them in the background.
See the repository for all the [available data sources](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/tree/master/devenv/docker/blocks). Note that some data sources have specific Docker images for macOS, e.g. `prometheus_mac`.
## Learn more
-[How to contribute to Grafana as a junior dev](https://medium.com/@ivanahuckova/how-to-contribute-to-grafana-as-junior-dev-c01fe3064502) by [Ivana Huckova](https://medium.com/@ivanahuckova).
