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Getting Started

This guide walks you through setting up the Tower Defense project on your local machine.

Prerequisites​

Install the following tools before you start:

  • Node.js (latest LTS)
  • pnpm (monorepo package manager)
  • MySQL (local server, any recent version)
  • smtp4dev (local mail sink for email testing — download)

1. Install Dependencies​

git clone https://github.com/defkil/tower-defense.git
cd tower-defense
pnpm install

2. Configure Environment Variables​

Create a .env file in the workspace root. All variables are loaded from this file at runtime.

# Database
MYSQL_HOST=localhost:3306
MYSQL_USER=your_mysql_user
MYSQL_PASSWORD=your_mysql_password
MYSQL_DB=tower_defense

# Better Auth
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=a-long-random-secret-string
BETTER_AUTH_URL=http://localhost:3000

# SMTP (smtp4dev defaults)
SMTP_HOST=localhost
SMTP_PORT=25
SMTP_SECURE=false
SMTP_FROM=noreply@localhost
Common Mistake

INCORRECT: DATABASE_URL=mysql://... — this project uses individual MYSQL_* variables.
CORRECT: Set MYSQL_HOST, MYSQL_USER, MYSQL_PASSWORD, and MYSQL_DB separately.

Common Mistake

INCORRECT: BETTER_AUTH_URL=http://localhost:4200 — this points at the Angular frontend.
CORRECT: BETTER_AUTH_URL=http://localhost:3000 — must point at the NestJS API.

3. Run Database Migrations​

Ensure your MySQL server is running and the database tower_defense exists. Then apply migrations:

pnpm nx run db:migrate
info

db:push does not exist. Always use db:migrate to apply schema changes. Use db:generate first if you changed schema.ts.

4. Start the Development Environment​

# Start both frontend and backend in parallel
pnpm nx run-many --targets=serve --projects=game,api
ServiceURL
Frontend (Angular)http://localhost:4200
Backend (NestJS)http://localhost:3000
Local Mail Sink (smtp4dev)http://127.0.0.1:50463

The Angular dev server proxies all /api requests to http://localhost:3000. No CORS configuration is needed in local development.

5. Verify the Setup​

  1. Open http://localhost:4200
  2. Click Register and create an account
  3. Check http://127.0.0.1:50463 for the verification email
  4. Click the verification link to activate the account

Next Steps​