# Radicle Explorer

This user interface lets you interact with [Radicle][rad], a peer-to-peer code
collaboration and publishing stack, directly from your web browser.

The [Radicle desktop app](desktop/README.md) lives in the `desktop/` folder of
this repository.

**Deployment Options:**

* **Public Server:** The Radicle team maintains a public instance at [radicle.network][app]
* **Local-first:** Run the UI locally
* **Self-hosting:** Deploy the UI on your own server


## Local-first

**Prerequisites:**

* Recent versions of [Node.js][nod] (24 or higher) and [npm][npm] installed

Run the following commands to access the web UI locally:

``` shell
git clone https://seed.radicle.dev/z4V1sjrXqjvFdnCUbxPFqd5p4DtH5.git radicle-explorer
cd radicle-explorer
npm install
npm start
```

Then open http://localhost:3000 in your favourite browser.


## Self-Hosting the UI

There are several ways to deploy the UI publicly. Here are two common options:

**Using your own web server:**

1. Run `npm install && npm build` to create a build for deployment
2. Configure your web server to serve the contents of the `/build` directory

**Using Vercel (or similar static file hosting):**

1. Fork this repository to create your own version
2. Configure your Vercel account to deploy the forked repository

**Add Rewrite Rules for Client-Side Routing**

The explorer is a single-page application (SPA). To ensure that all routes are
handled correctly, add a [try_files rule](try) to your web server configuration.
For example:

Caddy:

```
example.com {
    root * /path/to/radicle-explorer/build
    try_files {path} /index.html
    file_server
}
```

## Configuration

There are two ways to configure the UI: **at build time** and **at run time**.

### Build-Time Configuration

This method is recommended when deploying to static hosting platforms such
as Vercel.

#### Option 1: Create a `local.json` file

1. Copy [`default.json`][def] to a new file in the same directory called
   `local.json`.
2. Modify the properties in `local.json` to suit your setup.

#### Option 2: Use environment variables

1. Refer to [`custom-environment-variables.json`][env] for a list of supported
   environment variables.
2. Set the desired variables in your environment before building the UI.

> For advanced configuration options, refer to the [`node-config`][nco]
> documentation.


### Run-Time Configuration

This method is useful when the app is distributed as a precompiled static
JS/HTML bundle, such as when installed via a package manager.

You can build the app in a mode that loads configuration dynamically from the
server it's deployed to, instead of bundling it at build time.

To enable this behavior, set the environment variable `VITE_RUNTIME_CONFIG=true`
during the build:

```bash
VITE_RUNTIME_CONFIG=true npm run build
```

This will inject a blocking script into the `index.html` that attempts to load
the configuration from a pre-defined location (`/config.json`) on the server.

The config file must be served as static content and must be publicly accessible.
The structure of the runtime `config.json` must match the shape of the
application's base configuration defined in `config/default.json`.


### Homepage

The `nodes.homepage` key controls what is rendered at the root URL (`/`):

* `"node"` (default) — show the node view of the user's primary seed
  directly, as if the user had navigated to `/nodes/<your-node>`. The
  primary seed is resolved from `preferredSeeds` (see [`default.json`][def]).
  This is the default so that a self-hosted deployment acts as a dedicated
  front-end for its own seed.
* `"landing"` — serve the full Radicle marketing site: the landing page and
  its `/learn`, `/install` and documentation (`/glossary`, `/guides/*`)
  sub-routes. This is opt-in and intended for the canonical
  [radicle.network][app] deployment; the marketing sub-routes are only
  reachable in this mode.

The cross-seed Explore page is always available at `/explore`, regardless of
the `homepage` setting.

#### radicle.network deployment

`default.json` keeps `homepage` set to `"node"`, so self-hosted deployments
are unaffected. The canonical radicle.network deployment opts into the
marketing site at **build time** without changing that default. To deploy
radicle.network, run `npm run deploy`.

#### Node-homepage deployment

If you operate your own seed node and want the explorer to act as a
dedicated front-end for it (the default behaviour), put your own node first
(and ideally as the only entry) in `preferredSeeds` so it is always picked
as the primary seed.

Example `local.json`:

```json
{
  "preferredSeeds": [
    {
      "hostname": "seed.example.com",
      "port": 443,
      "scheme": "https"
    }
  ]
}
```

With this configuration, opening `/` lands the visitor on the node view
for `seed.example.com`. Keeping `preferredSeeds` to a single entry
ensures the primary seed is deterministic; if you list multiple, users
are bucketed across them and may land on a different node.


## Repository aliases

`radicle-httpd` can map a short, human-readable alias to a repository ID
(RID), so a repository can be referred to by name instead of its full
`rad:` identifier. Aliases are configured on the node with the
`--alias <name> <rid>` flag, which may be repeated:

```sh
radicle-httpd --alias heartwood rad:z3gqcJUoA1n9HaHKufZs5FCSGazv5
```

An alias works anywhere the RID is accepted: `git clone`, the HTTP API, the
raw endpoints, and Explorer URLs — the router resolves it transparently.
With the alias above, these two Explorer URLs point at the same repository:

```
https://radicle.network/nodes/seed.example.com/rad:z3gqcJUoA1n9HaHKufZs5FCSGazv5/issues
https://radicle.network/nodes/seed.example.com/heartwood/issues
```

and the repository can be cloned over Git by its alias:

```sh
git clone https://seed.example.com/heartwood.git
```


## Contributing

* For detailed contribution guidelines, refer to the [CONTRIBUTING.md][con]
  file
* To propose changes, open an [issue][iss] or submit a [patch][pat] using
  Radicle


## Getting in touch

To get in touch with the maintainers, sign up to our
[official chat on Zulip][zul].


## License

The UI is distributed under the terms of GPLv3. See [LICENSE][lic] for details.



[app]: https://radicle.network
[con]: ./CONTRIBUTING.md
[def]: ./config/default.json
[env]: ./config/custom-environment-variables.json
[iss]: https://radicle.network/nodes/iris.radicle.network/rad:z4V1sjrXqjvFdnCUbxPFqd5p4DtH5/issues
[lic]: ./LICENSE
[nco]: https://github.com/node-config/node-config/wiki/Configuration-Files
[nod]: https://nodejs.org
[npm]: https://www.npmjs.com
[pat]: https://radicle.network/nodes/iris.radicle.network/rad:z4V1sjrXqjvFdnCUbxPFqd5p4DtH5/patches
[rad]: https://radicle.dev
[try]: https://caddyserver.com/docs/caddyfile/patterns#single-page-apps-spas
[zul]: https://radicle.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/369278-web