lovat-server

The backend server for Lovat, a scouting system used to scout teams and matches in the First Robotics Competition

Developed by FRC Team 8033, @HighlanderRobotics

How to setup a dev server

Prerequisites

• Node.js v22.20.0
• Git (latest version)
• PostgreSQL (latest version)

Recommended

• Node Version Manager (nvm) - makes it way easier to work with multiple node versions

Step 1: Clone the repository from github

In your terminal, run

git clone https://github.com/HighlanderRobotics/lovat-server.

Step 2: Install dependencies

Ensure you're using the correct version of Node.js and npm. If you have nvm, you can do this by running the following:

nvm install 22.20.0
nvm use

To install dependencies from package.json:

npm install

to get the correct version of node

Step 3: Create a .env file

Find the .env.example file and make a copy. Rename it to .env and fill in the empty fields.

• In DATABASE_URL replace username with your username (the text to the left of the @ when you run a command), password with any random password, and postgres with lovat-dev.
• Get a TBA API key by creating an account and getting a "READ API key". Paste the key into TBA_KEY
• Set AUTH0_DOMAIN to lovat.us.auth0.com
• You don't really need to fill in the other fields

Step 4: Run the development server

Run

npm run dev

and your server should start. If you make any changes to a file and save, the server will restart automatically. To stop the server, press Ctrl + C

Step 5 (optional): Import a database backup

The server will automatically populate matches, tournaments, etc, on initial startup. If having a larger set of data makes testing easier, you might be provided with a database dump containing a more realistic example of what the production database looks like. Obtain the file and run the following.

pg_restore -d "postgresql://YOUR_CONNECTION_STRING" /path/to/your/backup --clean --if-exists --no-owner

# example
pg_restore -d "postgresql://johndoe:mytopsecretpassword@localhost:5432/lovat_dev" ~/Downloads/lovat-backup-2025-12-25.dump --clean --if-exists --no-owner