---
sidebar_navigation:
  title: Development setup on MacOS
  short_title: Setup on MacOS
description: OpenProject development setup on Mac OS
keywords: development setup macos
---

# OpenProject development setup on macOS

To develop OpenProject a setup similar to that for using OpenProject in production is needed.

This guide assumes that you have a macOS installation with administrative rights.
OpenProject will be installed with a PostgreSQL database.

**Please note**: This guide is NOT suitable for a production setup, but only for developing with it!

If you find any bugs or you have any recommendations for improving this tutorial, please, feel free to send a pull
request or comment in the [OpenProject forums](https://community.openproject.org/projects/openproject/boards).

## Prepare your environment

We'll use [homebrew](https://brew.sh/) to install most of our requirements. Please install that first using the guide on
their homepage.

### Install Ruby

Use [rbenv](https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv) and [ruby-build](https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build#readme) to install
Ruby. We always require the latest ruby versions, and you can check which version is required
by [checking the Gemfile](https://github.com/opf/openproject/blob/dev/Gemfile#L31) for the `ruby "~> X.Y"` statement. At
the time of writing, this version is "4.0.2"

#### Install rbenv and ruby-build

rbenv is a ruby version manager that lets you quickly switch between ruby versions.
ruby-build is an addon to rbenv that installs ruby versions.

```shell
# Install
$ brew install rbenv ruby-build
# Initialize rbenv
$ rbenv init
```

#### Installing ruby

With both installed, we can now install the actual ruby version.
You can check available ruby versions with `rbenv install --list`.

We suggest you install the version we require in [.ruby-version](https://github.com/opf/openproject/blob/dev/.ruby-version).
Read the first line e.g. `4.0.2` and install that version.

```shell
# Install the required version as read from the .ruby-version file
rbenv install 4.0.2
```

This might take a while depending on whether ruby is built from source. After it is complete, you need to tell rbenv to
globally activate this version

```shell
rbenv global 4.0.2
```

You also need to install [bundler](https://github.com/bundler/bundler/), the ruby gem bundler.

```shell
gem install bundler
```

### Setup PostgreSQL database

Next, install a PostgreSQL database. If you wish to use a MySQL database instead and have installed one, skip these
steps.

```shell
# Install postgres database
$ brew install postgresql

# Confirm that postgres has created a default database cluster if you see
This formula has created a default database cluster with:
  initdb --locale=C -E UTF-8 /opt/homebrew/var/postgresql@14 # /usr/local for Intel Macs
```

Then, create the OpenProject database user and accompanied database.

```shell
createuser -d -P openproject
```

You will be prompted for a password, for the remainder of these instructions, we assume its `openproject-dev-password`.

Now, create the database `openproject_dev` and `openproject_test` owned by the previously created user.

```shell
createdb -O openproject openproject_dev
createdb -O openproject openproject_test
```

### Install Node.js

We will install the latest LTS version of Node.js via [nodenv](https://github.com/nodenv/nodenv). This is basically the
same steps as for rbenv:

#### Install nodenv and node-build

```shell
# Install
brew install nodenv node-build
# Initialize nodenv
nodenv init
```

#### Install latest LTS node version

You can find the latest LTS version here: [nodejs.org/en/download](https://nodejs.org/en/download/)

At the time of writing this is v22.21.0. Install and activate it with:

```shell
nodenv install 22.21.0
nodenv global 22.21.0
```

#### Update NPM to the latest version

```shell
npm install npm@latest -g
```

### Verify your installation

You should now have an active ruby and node installation. Verify that it works with these commands.

```shell
$ ruby --version
ruby 4.0.2 (2026-03-17 revision d3da9fec82) +PRISM [arm64-darwin25]

$ bundler --version
4.0.3

node --version
v22.21.0

npm --version
10.5.0
```

## Install OpenProject

```shell
# Download the repository
git clone https://github.com/opf/openproject.git
cd openproject
```

Note that we have checked out the `dev` branch of the OpenProject repository. Development in OpenProject happens in
the `dev` branch (there is no `master` branch).
So, if you want to develop a feature, create a feature branch from a current `dev` branch.

### Configure OpenProject

Create and configure the database configuration file in `config/database.yml` (relative to the openproject-directory.

```shell
vim config/database.yml
```

Now edit the `config/database.yml` file and insert your database credentials.
It should look like this (just with your database name, username, and password):

```yaml
default: &default
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  # Socket encryption must be disabled on macOS. There is an old bug in which forked processes cause problems on a Mac.
  # TL;DR: set this flag, otherwise Ruby will crash whenever a route is accessed.
  # Visit https://github.com/ged/ruby-pg/issues/311 to enter the rabbit hole.
  gssencmode: disable
  host: localhost
  username: openproject
  password: openproject-dev-password

development:
  <<: *default
  database: openproject_dev

test:
  <<: *default
  database: openproject_test
```

To configure the environment variables such as the number of web server threads `OPENPROJECT_WEB_WORKERS`, copy
the `.env.example` to `.env` and add the environment variables you want to configure. The variables will be
automatically loaded to the application's environment.

> [!TIP]
> Instead of using the `gssencmode` flag in `config/database.yml`, you can add `export PGGSSENCMODE="disable"` to your
> Shell profile (`~/.zprofile` by default). This will prevent Ruby crashes for _all_ of your projects.

Some users report Ruby crashes despite having set this flag to disable. If this is the case for you as well,
try adding `export OBJC_DISABLE_INITIALIZE_FORK_SAFETY=yes` to your Shell profile.

### Install other requirements

Some operations in OpenProject require additional software. These include PDF exports and interaction with an
LDAP server.

In order to develop OpenProject in these areas, you need to install `imagemagick` and `java`.

```shell
brew install imagemagick java
```

As of writing, you need to manually create a symlink to OpenJDK for the Java installation to take effect. Homebrew will
tell you how.

### Finish the Installation of OpenProject

Install code dependencies, link plugin modules and export translation files.

- gem dependencies (If you get errors here, you're likely missing a development dependency for your distribution)
- node_modules
- link plugin frontend modules
- and export frontend localization files

```shell
bin/setup_dev
```

Now, run the following tasks to migrate and seed the dev database, and prepare the test setup for running tests locally.

```shell
RAILS_ENV=development bin/rails db:seed
```

### Run OpenProject through overmind

You can run all required workers of OpenProject through `overmind`, which combines them in a single tab. Optionally, you
may also
run `overmind` as a daemon and connect to services individually.
The `bin/dev` command will first check if `overmind` is available and run the application via `Procfile.dev`. Otherwise
it will use `foreman` if it is available.

```shell
bin/dev
```

The application will be available at `http://127.0.0.1:3000`. To customize bind address and port copy the `.env.example`
provided in the root of this
project as `.env` and [configure values](https://github.com/DarthSim/overmind/tree/v2.4.0#overmind-environment) as
required.

By default a worker process will also be started. In development asynchronous execution of long-running background
tasks (sending emails, copying projects,
etc.) may be of limited use and it has known issues with regards to memory (see background worker section below). To
disable the worker process:

```shell
echo "OVERMIND_IGNORED_PROCESSES=worker" >> .overmind.env
```

For more information refer to the great Overmind
documentation [usage section](https://github.com/DarthSim/overmind/tree/v2.4.0#usage).

You can access the application with the admin-account having the following credentials:

```text
Username: admin
Password: admin
```

### Run OpenProject manually

To run OpenProject manually, you need to run the rails server and the webpack frontend bundler to:

#### Rails web server

```shell
RAILS_ENV=development bin/rails server
```

This will start the development server on port `3000` by default.

#### Angular frontend

To run the frontend server, please run

```shell
RAILS_ENV=development npm run serve
```

This will watch for any changes within the `frontend/` and compile the application javascript bundle on demand. You will
need to watch this tab for the compilation output,
should you be working on the TypeScript / Angular frontend part.

You can then access the application either through `localhost:3000` (Rails server) or through the frontend
proxied `http://localhost:4200`, which will provide hot reloading for changed frontend code.

#### Delayed Job background worker

```shell
RAILS_ENV=development bundle exec good_job start
```

This will start a Delayed::Job worker to perform asynchronous jobs like sending emails.

### Additional test dependencies

The test suite requires a few additional dependencies to be installed. These are not required for running OpenProject in
development mode, but only for running the entire test suite.

#### Java 7 or later

To test the integration with LDAP servers, we rely on [ladle](https://github.com/NUBIC/ladle) to spin up an LDAP server
when running tests. As this runs [ApacheDS](https://directory.apache.org/apacheds/) internally, it requires Java 7 or
later to be installed.

If java is not installed, some tests will stall for 60 seconds before timing out. To run the tests, install java with

```shell
brew install openjdk

# The installation instructions will tell you to add a symlink to the JDK for the `java` command to pick it up
sudo ln -sfn $(brew --prefix)/opt/openjdk/libexec/openjdk.jdk /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk.jdk
```

#### Subversion

To test the integration with Subversion repositories, we rely on the `svnadmin` command to be available. If subversion
is not installed, the tests _will be skipped_. To run the tests, install subversion with

```shell
brew install subversion
```

#### Git

To test the integration with Git repositories, we rely on the `git` command to be available. Git is either installed via
the Xcode Command Line Tools, with [Xcode](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12) or via homebrew.

```shell
xcode-select --install

# or

brew install git
```

### Known issues

#### Spawning a lot of browser tabs

If you haven't run this command for a while, chances are that a lot of background jobs have queued up and might cause a
significant amount of open tabs (due to the way we deliver mails with the letter_opener gem). To get rid of the jobs
before starting the worker, use the following command. **This will remove all currently scheduled jobs, never use this
in a production setting.**

```shell
RAILS_ENV=development bin/rails runner "Delayed::Job.delete_all"
```