Overview

The HIPCTF monorepo ships a single root command — npm run dev — that boots the NestJS backend and the Angular dev server in parallel, with the Angular dev server proxying /api and /uploads calls to the backend on port 3000. All persistent runtime files (SQLite database, uploaded icons / attachments / logos) live under the project-local ./data/ directory.

How to start the full stack (tester steps)

From the repository root, install workspace dependencies once:
```
npm ci
```
Start both servers in parallel:
```
npm run dev
```
This uses concurrently to run:
- npm --workspace backend run start:dev (NestJS watch mode on http://localhost:3000)
- npm --workspace frontend run start (Angular dev server on http://localhost:4200) Process names backend and frontend are prefixed per output line. If either process exits with a non-zero status, the other is killed (--kill-others-on-fail).
Open the browser:
- Frontend (preferred for app work): http://localhost:4200/
- Backend (single-port mode, serves built SPA later): http://localhost:3000/

To run them individually during debugging:

npm run dev:backend
npm run dev:frontend

Project-local data directory

Path	Purpose	Backed by env var
`./data/`	Root runtime data directory (gitignored).	—
`./data/db.sqlite`	SQLite database file (created on first boot).	`DATABASE_PATH`
`./data/uploads/`	Uploaded category icons, challenge files, site logos.	`UPLOAD_DIR`

Both defaults are declared in backend/src/config/env.schema.ts and re-declared as fallbacks in every backend code path that calls ConfigService.get so direct/unit construction cannot silently revert to the legacy absolute paths. Relative paths are resolved with path.resolve against the process working directory — when launched via the root scripts, that is the repository root.

The legacy absolute defaults (/data/hipctf/db.sqlite, /data/hipctf/uploads) have been removed; set DATABASE_PATH and UPLOAD_DIR explicitly if you need to point at an external location (e.g. a mounted volume in production).

The data directory is created automatically:

DatabaseModule ensures the parent directory of DATABASE_PATH exists before connecting.
main.ts, UploadsController, buildMulter, and UploadsStaticMiddleware all mkdir -p the upload directory on startup.
setup.sh creates ./data/uploads before any build so first-boot Multer writes never fail.

Angular dev-server proxy

frontend/proxy.conf.json is wired into the serve target in frontend/angular.json so relative URLs from the SPA hit the backend without CORS prompts:

Origin path	Target	Notes
`/api`	`http://localhost:3000`	All REST controllers + SSE endpoints. `changeOrigin: true`.
`/uploads`	`http://localhost:3000`	Static files served by `UploadsStaticMiddleware`.

The proxy is development-only. In production (npm start / backend/dist/main.js) the backend serves the built SPA directly and no proxy is involved.

Root scripts

Script	What it does
`npm run dev`	Start backend + frontend together via `concurrently`.
`npm run dev:backend`	Start only the NestJS backend in watch mode.
`npm run dev:frontend`	Start only the Angular dev server.
`npm start`	Run the production backend (`node backend/dist/main.js`).
`npm run build`	Build both workspaces (frontend first, then backend).
`npm run start:dev`	Alias for `npm run dev` (kept for backwards compatibility).
`npm test`	Run the full Jest project (backend + frontend).

Expected behavior (tester)

npm run dev displays interleaved backend and frontend logs, each prefixed with the process name and a color.
The Angular dev server prints Application bundle generation complete within a few seconds and the page is reachable at http://localhost:4200/.
Visiting http://localhost:4200/ triggers GET /api/v1/bootstrap (proxied to port 3000) and shows the appropriate public, login, or bootstrap page.
Uploads (e.g. category icons via the admin UI) land under ./data/uploads/ and are immediately readable from the dev frontend via /uploads/... (proxied).
Pressing Ctrl+C once terminates both processes cleanly.

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