🚀 Development Setup Guide

This guide outlines the recommended setup process for developers and contributors working on Pixella.

📋 Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• Python 3.11 or higher (required)
• Git for version control
• Internet connection for downloading dependencies
• A Google AI API key (get one from Google AI Studio)

⚙️ Installation Steps

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/DominionDev-coder/Pixella-chatbot.git
cd Pixella-chatbot

Then Cofigure your environment and

📁 Project Structure

After setup, your project structure should look like this:

Pixella-chatbot/
├── .venv/                    # Python virtual environment
├── bin/
│   └── pixella              # Command wrapper
├── data/
│   └── memory/              # Session data storage
├── db/
│   └── chroma/              # Vector database
├── docs/                    # Documentation
├── scripts/
│   └── install.sh           # Installation script
├── .env                     # Environment configuration
├── main.py                  # Main application entry point
├── pixella/                 # Main package
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── cli.py              # CLI commands
│   ├── config.py           # Configuration management
│   ├── memory.py           # Memory management
│   └── ...
└── requirements.txt         # Python dependencies

🔧 Development Workflow

1. Activate Your Environment

# The installation script should have added pixella to your PATH
# If not, activate the virtual environment manually:
source .venv/bin/activate  # Linux/macOS
# or
.venv\Scripts\activate     # Windows

2. Verify Installation

# Check that everything is working
python main.py

# Or use the pixella command
pixella --help

3. Configure API Key

If you didn’t set it during installation:

pixella config --google-api-key "your-api-key-here"

4. Start Developing

# Run in development mode
pixella cli --interactive

# Or start the web UI
pixella ui

🧪 Testing

# Run the test suite
python -m pytest

# Run specific tests
python -m pytest tests/test_specific.py

# Run with coverage
python -m pytest --cov=pixella

📝 Code Style

We follow these conventions:

• Python: PEP 8 with Black formatting
• Commits: Conventional commits (feat:, fix:, Implement, Minor Changes, Improvement etc.)
• Documentation: Clear, concise comments and docstrings

Linting and Formatting

# Format code
black pixella/

# Check style
flake8 pixella/

# Type checking
mypy pixella/

🔄 Development Commands

Common Tasks

# Update dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Clean cache files
find . -type d -name __pycache__ -exec rm -rf {} +

# Reset database (be careful!)
rm -rf db/ data/

# View logs
tail -f pixella.log

Working with Git

1. Create a new branch for your feature or bugfix:

   # Create a feature branch
   git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
   # or for bugfix
   git checkout -b bugfix/issue-number
   

   Start coding!

2. Create a .gitignore file to exclude unnecessary files: refer to the .gitignore template in README.md for details.

3. Make your changes…
   • Write codes Avoid creating unrelated files or changes in the same pull request. Only use python language for coding.

• Run tests

  python -m pytest
  

• Commit with conventional format

  git commit -m "feat: Add new feature description"
  # or "fix: Fix bug description"
  

• Push and create PR ```bash git push origin feature/your-feature-name Open a Pull Request on GitHub with a descriptive title and explanation.

🐛 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

“pixella command not found”

export PATH="$PWD/bin:$PATH"

“Module not found” errors

# Reactivate virtual environment
source .venv/bin/activate

# Reinstall dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

“API key not configured”

pixella config --google-api-key "your-key-here"
# or edit .env file directly

Getting Help

• Check the README.md for general usage
• Review CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidelines
• Open an issue on GitHub for bugs or feature requests

🎯 Next Steps

1. Explore the codebase in pixella/
2. Check out the CLI commands with pixella --help
3. Try the web UI with pixella ui
4. Look at existing issues for contribution ideas

Happy coding! 🤖