Installation

This guide walks you through setting up PolitikTok for local development.

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure the following tools are installed on your system:

Tool	Minimum Version	Purpose
Rust	1.89+	Compiler toolchain
dx (Dioxus CLI)	0.7.3	Build, serve, and hot-reload the application
Docker & Docker Compose	20.10+ / 2.20+	Run PostgreSQL, Qdrant, Keycloak, Ollama, SearXNG
wasm32 target	--	WebAssembly compilation target for the frontend

Install Rust

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
rustup default stable

Add the WebAssembly Target

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown

Install the Dioxus CLI

cargo install dioxus-cli@0.7.3

Verify the installation:

dx --version
# dioxus 0.7.3

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-org/politiktok.git
cd politiktok

Start Infrastructure Services

PolitikTok depends on several services that run in Docker containers. Start them all with:

docker compose up -d

This launches PostgreSQL, Qdrant, Keycloak, Ollama, and SearXNG. See the Docker Setup page for details on each service and its ports.

Wait for all services to report healthy status:

docker compose ps

Pull an Ollama Model

The application needs at least one LLM and one embedding model loaded in Ollama:

# Text generation model
docker exec politiktok-ollama ollama pull llama3.1:8b

# Embedding model
docker exec politiktok-ollama ollama pull nomic-embed-text

Configure Environment Variables

Copy the example environment file and adjust as needed:

cp .env.example .env

The defaults in .env.example are configured for the Docker Compose setup and should work out of the box for local development. See Configuration for details on every variable.

Run Database Migrations

Migrations run automatically on server startup via sqlx::migrate!("./migrations"). No manual step is required -- the server applies pending migrations each time it starts.

Start the Development Server

dx serve

This compiles both the server (--features server) and client (--features web) targets, starts the Axum server, and enables hot-reloading for RSX changes. The application will be available at:

http://localhost:8080

The dx CLI proxies requests and handles WASM asset serving automatically.

Build for Production

dx build --release

This produces optimized server and client binaries in the dist/ directory. The server binary embeds the WASM client assets and can be deployed as a single executable.

Verify the Setup

1. Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser.
2. You should see the PolitikTok landing page.
3. Click "Get Started" to be redirected to Keycloak for login.
4. Log in with the default Keycloak admin credentials (admin / admin), or create a new user in the politiktok realm.
5. After authentication, you will land on the dashboard.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely Cause	Fix
wasm32-unknown-unknown compilation errors	Missing target	rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown
Database connection refused	PostgreSQL not running	docker compose up -d postgres
LLM requests timeout	No model loaded in Ollama	docker exec politiktok-ollama ollama pull llama3.1:8b
Keycloak redirect fails	Wrong APP_URL in .env	Ensure APP_URL matches the address dx serve is using
CORS errors in browser	Middleware ordering	Check that tower-http CORS layer is in the Axum router