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Prerequisites

  1. Python Environment 
    # Create virtual environment
python -m venv blast-venv
source blast-venv/bin/activate  # Linux/macOS
# or
blast-venv\Scripts\activate     # Windows
  2. Node.js and npm (for web UI)
    • Install from nodejs.org
    • Required for web frontend development
  3. Browser Requirements 
    # Install browser dependencies
python -m playwright install chromium

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Installation

  1. Clone Repository 
    git clone https://github.com/stanford-mast/blast.git
cd blast
  2. Install Dependencies 
    # Install Python dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Install frontend dependencies
cd blastai/frontend
npm install

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Development Server

Just run blastai serve.

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Configuration

Create a development config file: 
# dev_config.yaml
settings:
  persist_cache: false  # Disable cache persistence on disk (also use "no-cache" to disable in memory)
  blastai_log_level: "debug"
  browser_use_log_level: "debug"

constraints:
  max_concurrent_browsers: 2
  allow_parallelism:
    task: true
    data: true

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Testing

# Run all tests (probably don't since our test suite needs to be distilled a bit)
pytest

# Run specific test file
pytest tests/test_engine.py

# Run with coverage
pytest --cov=blastai

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Debugging

  1. Backend Debugging 
    settings:
    persist_cache: false
    blastai_log_level: "debug"
    browser_use_log_level: "debug"
  2. Frontend Debugging
    • Use browser dev tools
    • Check browser console
    • Monitor network requests
  3. Browser Debugging 
    # Enable browser debugging
constraints = Constraints(require_headless=False)

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Documentation

Go to the GitHub repo for docs.

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Next Steps