blog: implement contributor guide for local PipeCD setup

[shivansh-gohem]

Hi @eeshaanSA and @khanhtc1202,

This PR delivers the local setup guide you assigned.

Goal: Create a simple, step-by-step tutorial for new contributors on setting up the Control Plane and Piped agent locally via the Quickstart method.

Source: The guide is based on the official quickstart and my personal successful end-to-end setup (validated in PR #6332).

Ready for review! Thank you.

[eeshaanSA]

Thanks for this, @shivansh-gohem. You seem to have mistaken the local development setup with the quick start guide.

The quickstart setup is aimed towards end-users who want to setup PipeCD and try the features out. The actual development setup would be ideally done through the source code, forked from GitHub. Please check how to setup a local development environment documentation on GitHub.

[shivansh-gohem]

Hi @eeshaanSA,

Thank you again for the critical feedback. I sincerely apologize for the initial error confusing the End-User Quickstart with the Contributor Local Development Setup.

I have located the correct documentation and have completely rewritten the blog post.

The PR now contains a guide focused on the correct developer workflow: building and running the Control Plane and Piped Agent directly from the Go source code (using make run/pipecd and make run/piped), which is the true path for contribution.

[eeshaanSA]

@shivansh-gohem, have you tried setting up PipeCD using this guide?

[shivansh-gohem]

Hi @eeshaanSA ,
Yes, I have set up PipeCD locally using these developer steps.

I verified the full build process locally (make run/pipecd). The build revealed that Node.js and Yarn were missing from the prerequisites list (causing the web build to fail). I have updated the guide to include them, along with the correct make update/web-deps command.

I also fixed the Fork instruction and the Title as requested. The PR is now ready for review

[shivansh-gohem]

Hi @eeshaanSA,

Just a gentle bump on this PR. I believe I have addressed all the feedback from your last review (updated the title, corrected the fork instructions, and verified the local setup steps including the Yarn dependencies).

Please let me know if there are any further changes needed. Thank you!

[shivansh-gohem]

Hi @eeshaanSA,

Thank you for testing this out and for the honest feedback.

I understand that the local development setup has some underlying stability issues right now and that the shift to the v1 pipedConfig adds complexity. I appreciate you saving me from spinning my wheels on this while those architectural changes are discussed. I will put this PR on hold.

Since I have been focusing on [EPIC] Improve and Expand Contributing Section in Documentation #6124, I would love to stay within that scope if possible.

I know I previously mentioned tackling the 'Contribute to piped Plugins' section next. Is that area also blocked by the v1 config issues (since it requires a local agent), or would that be a safe documentation task to pick up now?

[shivansh-gohem]

/cc @eeshaanSA

[shivansh-gohem]

Hi @eeshaanSA,

I have re-verified the setup locally with a clean cluster on the latest master.

make up/local-cluster: Success

make run/pipecd: Success (All pods healthy: server, gateway, ops are Running)

UI Access: Success

The stability issues are resolved. Ready for merge!

[eeshaanSA]

Please resolve the issues in the PR, and please, avoid submitting low quality PRs if you want your PRs to be merged soon.

[shivansh-gohem]

Thanks for the feedback. I checked the pkg/config/testdata and realized I had a typo in the config kind (Pipecd instead of Piped).

I have corrected the guide to use the valid apiVersion: pipecd.dev/v1beta1 and kind: Piped structure. The PR is now updated and squashed. Ready for review.

[eeshaanSA]

Please resolve the comments, and the changes requested. Additionally, title needs to be changed.

[eeshaanSA]

Please resolve the comments and implement the changes. Additionally, we need a better title. "How to set-up..."

[eeshaanSA]

@rahulshendre, @Ayushmore1214

Would you mind reviewing this PR? Your help would be appreciated.

[Ayushmore1214]

@shivansh-gohem Also according to the steps mentioned in the doc the local dev server doesnt seems to be starting , are you sure you tried running on your env , does it works fine ? I am using github codespaces Btw

[eeshaanSA]

@shivansh-gohem Also according to the steps mentioned in the doc the local dev server doesnt seems to be starting , are you sure you tried running on your env , does it works fine ? I am using github codespaces Btw

interesting, could you please share screenshots, and also try the setup on CONTRIBUTING.md please?

[eeshaanSA]

Don't know about GitHub workspaces, but it should work in a local env.

[rahulshendre]

@shivansh-gohem the “Context” heading feels a bit out of place here. The content reads more like a summary or an introduction to the next step rather than background context. Renaming it to something like “Next Steps” would be better.
@eeshaanSA, could you suggest a good replacement.

[Ayushmore1214]

@shivansh-gohem Also according to the steps mentioned in the doc the local dev server doesnt seems to be starting , are you sure you tried running on your env , does it works fine ? I am using github codespaces Btw

interesting, could you please share screenshots, and also try the setup on CONTRIBUTING.md please?

Seems to be working now , a silly mistake by me

[shivansh-gohem]

Thanks everyone! I have updated the PR with all requests:

Title & Metadata: Updated title to 'How to set up...' and filled in the Frontmatter with valid details.

Content Updates: Added 'Estimated setup time', updated the Step 1 description, and removed the inaccurate note on forking.

Corrections: Added INSECURE=true to the run command and renamed the final section to 'Next Steps'.

Ready for final review.

[Ayushmore1214]

Looks good to me 👍

[eeshaanSA]

@shivansh-gohem , please resolve all comments, and implement requested changes!

[eeshaanSA]

@Ayushmore1214 could you please follow this guide and see if this works? Thanks in advance. Any more reviews are also appreciated.

[Ayushmore1214]

@shivansh-gohem @eeshaanSA I have some issues ,

1. I have install kind separately which is not mentioned in the doc , In the Prerequisites section, we must explicitly list Kind
2. The guide runs make up/local-cluster and then immediately make run/pipecd. This caused your Connection refused error because kubectl didn't know where the new cluster was. After the make up/local-cluster step, we need to explicitly export the kubeconfig. through this command : kind export kubeconfig --name pipecd
   I have this issue in a codespace env , if this repeats to you @eeshaanSA while your setup , we should include the above things

[Ayushmore1214]

Also for cleanup we should add this command :
make down/local-cluster
to the doc

[eeshaanSA]

@shivansh-gohem, please make the requested changes by @Ayushmore1214.