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Environment Setup

This guide details how to set up your development environment for working with the Cloudaware Compliance Engine repository. We provide several equally viable options to suit your preferences.

For the best experience, we recommend using Visual Studio Code. This repository is pre-configured to support VS Code with a rich set of extensions and a ready-to-use development container.

There are two equally preferred ways to use VS Code:

  • Local VS Code: Use your local installation of VS Code and install the recommended extensions.
  • Dev Container: Use the provided dev container, which comes with all the necessary tools and extensions pre-installed.

In both cases, we strongly recommend using the suggested extensions for the best experience.

Local VS Code Setup​

If you prefer to use your local installation of VS Code, you will need to install the following:

  • Git: For version control.
  • Java: Required to run the repo-manager.jar.
  • Google Cloud CLI: For interacting with Google Cloud services, particularly BigQuery.
  • Recommended VS Code Extensions: See the list below.

Dev Container Setup​

The dev container provides a consistent and reproducible environment with all the necessary tools and extensions pre-installed. To use it, you will need to have Docker and the Dev Containers extension for VS Code installed.

Once you have the prerequisites, open the repository in VS Code, and you will be prompted to "Reopen in Container". This will build the container image and start the dev container.

For more details on running devcontainers, see Running Devcontainer.

The dev container includes:

  • The latest LTS version of Java.
  • Git and the Google Cloud CLI.
  • The Gemini CLI.
  • A pre-configured repo-manager alias.
  • The recommended VS Code extensions.

Whether you are using a local setup or the dev container, we recommend the following extensions for the best experience:

.yaml file support​

  • YAML Pre-configured for schema mapping. Utilize schema validation and autocompletion (Ctrl+Space) for accurate policy writing.

.md file support​

BigQuery integration​

General utilities​

Other IDEs​

You are welcome to use other IDEs such as IntelliJ IDEA, WebStorm, or any other editor of your choice. However, we do not provide pre-configured setups or specific instructions for them. You will need to configure the necessary tools and plugins yourself.

CLI-Only Setup​

If you prefer to work from the command line, you can use the following tools:

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

  • Git: For version control.
  • Java: Required to run the repo-manager.jar.
  • Google Cloud CLI: For interacting with Google Cloud services, particularly BigQuery.

Repository Manager (repo-manager)​

The repo-manager is a command-line tool for managing the repository. It is provided as a Java archive (repo-manager.jar) in the root of the repository.

You can run it directly from the root of the repository using java -jar repo-manager.jar or by using one of the provided helper scripts:

  • ./repo-manager (for Linux and macOS)
  • repo-manager.bat (for Windows Command Prompt)
  • ./repo-manager.ps1 (for Windows PowerShell)

These scripts automatically pass the necessary arguments to the Java application.

For convenience, if you are working in an environment with a single repository, you can create an alias in your shell's configuration file (e.g., .bashrc, .zshrc) to call repo-manager from any directory:

alias repo-manager='java -jar /path/to/your/repo/repo-manager.jar --repository=/path/to/your/repo "$@"'

Replace /path/to/your/repo with the absolute path to the root of this repository.