Development Setup

Setting up a local development environment for CoW Protocol Services

Development Setup

This guide covers establishing a local development environment for CoW Protocol Services, a Rust-based project requiring multiple tools and dependencies.

Prerequisites

• Rust 2024 Edition - Install via rustup
• Docker/Docker Compose - For PostgreSQL and other services
• Foundry’s anvil - For network testing
• cargo-nextest - For running tests

Do not use cargo test - always use cargo nextest run due to CI compatibility differences.

Optional Tools

• Just - Convenient command shortcuts (just test-unit, just fmt, etc.)
• Tombi - TOML formatting tool

Setup Steps

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/cowprotocol/services.git
cd services

2. Build Dependencies

Dependencies are automatically resolved via Cargo:

cargo build

3. Configure PostgreSQL

Start PostgreSQL using Docker Compose, which handles migrations automatically:

docker compose up -d db

4. Set Environment Variables

For forked network testing, configure RPC endpoints:

export FORK_URL_MAINNET="https://eth.llamarpc.com"
export FORK_URL_GNOSIS="https://rpc.gnosischain.com"

IDE Configuration

VS Code

Recommended extensions:

• rust-analyzer
• Even Better TOML
• CodeLLDB (for debugging)

JetBrains IDEs

• Official Rust plugin
• Configure nightly rustfmt in settings

Zed

• Built-in Rust support
• Tombi extension for TOML

Verification

Validate your setup by running:

# Unit tests
just test-unit

# Database tests (requires PostgreSQL)
just test-db

# Formatting check
cargo +nightly fmt --check

# Clippy linter
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features

Troubleshooting

Linker Errors

• Linux: Install build-essential packages
• macOS: Install Xcode command line tools (xcode-select --install)

Memory Constraints

Compilation can be memory-intensive. Ensure you have at least 8GB RAM available.

Port Conflicts

If PostgreSQL fails to start, check for existing instances on port 5432:

lsof -i :5432