Glot

Glot is a Gleam web application for running code and sharing snippets. This repository contains the backend, browser frontend, and the domain code shared between them.

Repository layout

• glot_backend — Erlang-target Gleam application, HTTP server, workers, PostgreSQL adapters, migrations, and startup seeds.
• glot_frontend — JavaScript-target Gleam application and browser assets, built with Lustre and Vite.
• glot_core — domain types and helpers shared by the backend and frontend.
• glot_web — shared Lustre presentation used by server-side and browser rendering; it depends on glot_core, never the reverse.

The backend is organized by feature. See Backend architecture for its dependency rules, effect boundaries, ports, adapters, and SQL organization.

Prerequisites

• Gleam and a compatible Erlang/OTP installation
• Node.js and npm
• Docker with Docker Compose
• watchexec for the development watchers

Local setup

Install the frontend dependencies:

cd glot_frontend
npm install
cd ..

Start a fresh local PostgreSQL instance:

./reset_db.sh

Build the frontend and start the backend:

./run_backend_cycle.sh

The backend listens on http://localhost:3000 by default. At startup it runs the migrations in glot_backend/priv/db/migrations, followed by the seeds for the current APP_ENV in glot_backend/priv/db/seeds.

For automatic restarts when backend or shared Gleam sources change, use:

./run_backend.sh

The watcher rebuilds the frontend into glot_backend/priv/static before each backend restart.

Frontend development

With the backend running, start the Vite development server in another terminal:

./run_frontend.sh

Vite listens on http://localhost:5173 by default and proxies /api requests to the backend on port 3000.

To build the browser assets once:

./build_frontend.sh

Database tools

Open a PostgreSQL shell for the local database:

./psql.sh

Regenerate glot_backend/src/glot_backend/sql.gleam from the feature-local SQL sources:

./run_parrot.sh

Parrot connects to the local glot database, so PostgreSQL must be running and the schema must be current. Change SQL source files under feature sql/ directories; do not edit the generated sql.gleam directly.

To print the most recently created development login token:

./print_login_token.sh

Configuration

run_backend_env.sh supplies a complete development configuration. For a manually configured backend process, these variables are required:

Variable	Purpose
APP_ENV	Seed environment: dev or prod
ENCRYPTION_KEY	Key used to protect signed application data
POSTGRES_HOST	PostgreSQL hostname
POSTGRES_PORT	PostgreSQL port
POSTGRES_DB	Database name
POSTGRES_USER	Database user
POSTGRES_PASS	Database password
POSTGRES_POOL_SIZE	Connection pool size

The backend defaults to localhost:3000. Override that with LISTENING_ADDRESS and LISTENING_PORT. STATIC_BASE_PATH can override the directory served for frontend assets.

Tests

Run the Gleam test suites from their application directories:

(cd glot_core && gleam test)
(cd glot_backend && gleam test)
(cd glot_frontend && gleam test)

Run the JavaScript custom-element tests with:

cd glot_frontend
npm run test:javascript

For backend changes, glot_backend's full gleam test suite is the required validation step.