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Expert-only development setup

At a glance

A faster dev loop for working only on this module (Expert backend) — no AI stack, no Citizen Science frontend.

  • Time: ~5 minutes
  • Who: developers iterating on the Expert (Django) backend only
  • Use trapper-setup instead for any deployment-shaped task, or if you need the AI stack/frontend running too.

Steps

1. Clone this repository

git clone https://gitlab.com/trapper-project/trapper.git
cd trapper

2. Copy and adjust the env template

cp trapper.env .env
# Edit .env if you want to point at an external DB or change ports

See External database for the external-DB option.

3. Start the dev stack

./start.sh -pb dev
Flag What it does
-p Pulls images
-b Builds the local trapper image
-d Use an external database instead of the bundled container

Run ./start.sh -h for the full flag list.

4. Create a superuser

docker compose exec trapper bash
python /app/trapper-project/manage.py createsuperuser

Verify it worked

Trapper Expert should respond at http://localhost:8000. Log in to /admin/ with the superuser you just created.

This path skips the AI stack and frontend entirely — use it for quick iteration on the Expert backend.

Next steps