Skip to main content

💻 Local Development Guide

This guide covers setting up and working with Eliza in a development environment.

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, ensure you have:

# Required
Node.js 23+
pnpm
Git

# Optional but recommended
VS Code
Docker (for database development)
CUDA Toolkit (for GPU acceleration)

Initial Setup​

1. Repository Setup​

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ai16z/eliza.git
cd eliza

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Install optional dependencies
pnpm install --include=optional sharp

2. Environment Configuration​

Create your development environment file:

cp .env.example .env

Configure essential development variables:

# Minimum required for local development
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-*           # Optional, for OpenAI features
X_SERVER_URL=                 # Leave blank for local inference
XAI_API_KEY=                 # Leave blank for local inference
XAI_MODEL=meta-llama/Llama-3.1-7b-instruct  # Local model

3. Local Model Setup​

For local inference without API dependencies:

# Install CUDA support for NVIDIA GPUs
npx --no node-llama-cpp source download --gpu cuda

# The system will automatically download models from
# Hugging Face on first run

Development Workflow​

Running the Development Server​

# Start with default character
pnpm run dev

# Start with specific character
pnpm run dev --characters="characters/my-character.json"

# Start with multiple characters
pnpm run dev --characters="characters/char1.json,characters/char2.json"

Development Commands​

pnpm run build          # Build the project
pnpm run clean         # Clean build artifacts
pnpm run dev           # Start development server
pnpm run test          # Run tests
pnpm run test:watch    # Run tests in watch mode
pnpm run lint          # Lint code

Direct Client Chat UI​

# Open a terminal and Start with specific character
pnpm run dev --characters="characters/my-character.json"
# Open a 2nd terminal and start the client
pnpm start:client

Look for the message: ➜ Local: http://localhost:5173/ Click on that link or open a browser window to that location. Once you do that you should see the chat interface connect with the system and you can start interacting with your character.

Database Development​

import { SqliteDatabaseAdapter } from "@ai16z/eliza/adapters";
import Database from "better-sqlite3";

const db = new SqliteDatabaseAdapter(new Database("./dev.db"));

In-Memory Database (for Testing)​

import { SqlJsDatabaseAdapter } from "@ai16z/eliza/adapters";

const db = new SqlJsDatabaseAdapter(new Database(":memory:"));

Schema Management​

# Create new migration
pnpm run migration:create

# Run migrations
pnpm run migration:up

# Rollback migrations
pnpm run migration:down

Testing​

Running Tests​

# Run all tests
pnpm test

# Run specific test file
pnpm test tests/specific.test.ts

# Run tests with coverage
pnpm test:coverage

# Run database-specific tests
pnpm test:sqlite
pnpm test:sqljs

Writing Tests​

import { runAiTest } from "@ai16z/eliza/test_resources";

describe("Feature Test", () => {
  beforeEach(async () => {
    // Setup test environment
  });

  it("should perform expected behavior", async () => {
    const result = await runAiTest({
      messages: [
        {
          user: "user1",
          content: { text: "test message" },
        },
      ],
      expected: "expected response",
    });
    expect(result.success).toBe(true);
  });
});

Plugin Development​

Creating a New Plugin​

// plugins/my-plugin/src/index.ts
import { Plugin } from "@ai16z/eliza/types";

export const myPlugin: Plugin = {
  name: "my-plugin",
  description: "My custom plugin",
  actions: [],
  evaluators: [],
  providers: [],
};

Custom Action Development​

// plugins/my-plugin/src/actions/myAction.ts
export const myAction: Action = {
  name: "MY_ACTION",
  similes: ["SIMILAR_ACTION"],
  validate: async (runtime: IAgentRuntime, message: Memory) => {
    return true;
  },
  handler: async (runtime: IAgentRuntime, message: Memory) => {
    // Implementation
    return true;
  },
  examples: [],
};

Debugging​

VS Code Configuration​

Create .vscode/launch.json:

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "node",
      "request": "launch",
      "name": "Debug Eliza",
      "skipFiles": ["<node_internals>/**"],
      "program": "${workspaceFolder}/src/index.ts",
      "runtimeArgs": ["-r", "ts-node/register"],
      "env": {
        "DEBUG": "eliza:*"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Debugging Tips​

  1. Enable Debug Logging
# Add to your .env file
DEBUG=eliza:*
  1. Use Debug Points
const debug = require("debug")("eliza:dev");

debug("Operation details: %O", {
  operation: "functionName",
  params: parameters,
  result: result,
});
  1. Memory Debugging
# Increase Node.js memory for development
NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=8192" pnpm run dev

Common Development Tasks​

1. Adding a New Character​

{
  "name": "DevBot",
  "description": "Development testing bot",
  "modelProvider": "openai",
  "settings": {
    "debug": true,
    "logLevel": "debug"
  }
}

2. Creating Custom Services​

class CustomService extends Service {
  static serviceType = ServiceType.CUSTOM;

  async initialize() {
    // Setup code
  }

  async process(input: any): Promise<any> {
    // Service logic
  }
}

3. Working with Models​

// Local model configuration
const localModel = {
  modelProvider: "llamalocal",
  settings: {
    modelPath: "./models/llama-7b.gguf",
    contextSize: 8192,
  },
};

// Cloud model configuration
const cloudModel = {
  modelProvider: "openai",
  settings: {
    model: "gpt-4o-mini",
    temperature: 0.7,
  },
};

Performance Optimization​

CUDA Setup​

For NVIDIA GPU users:

  1. Install CUDA Toolkit with cuDNN and cuBLAS
  2. Set environment variables:
CUDA_PATH=/usr/local/cuda  # Windows: C:\Program Files\NVIDIA GPU Computing Toolkit\CUDA\v11.0

Memory Management​

class MemoryManager {
  private cache = new Map();
  private maxSize = 1000;

  async cleanup() {
    if (this.cache.size > this.maxSize) {
      // Implement cleanup logic
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting​

Common Issues​

  1. Model Loading Issues
# Clear model cache
rm -rf ./models/*
# Restart with fresh download
  1. Database Connection Issues
# Test database connection
pnpm run test:db-connection
  1. Memory Issues
# Check memory usage
node --trace-gc index.js

Development Tools​

# Generate TypeScript documentation
pnpm run docs:generate

# Check for circular dependencies
pnpm run madge

# Analyze bundle size
pnpm run analyze

Best Practices​

  1. Code Organization

    • Place custom actions in custom_actions/
    • Keep character files in characters/
    • Store test data in tests/fixtures/

  2. Testing Strategy

    • Write unit tests for new features
    • Use integration tests for plugins
    • Test with multiple model providers

  3. Git Workflow

    • Create feature branches
    • Follow conventional commits
    • Keep PRs focused

Additional Tools​

Character Development​

# Generate character from Twitter data
npx tweets2character

# Convert documents to knowledge base
npx folder2knowledge <path/to/folder>

# Add knowledge to character
npx knowledge2character <character-file> <knowledge-file>

Development Scripts​

# Analyze codebase
./scripts/analyze-codebase.ts

# Extract tweets for training
./scripts/extracttweets.js

# Clean build artifacts
./scripts/clean.sh

Further Resources​