Install uv, a fast Python package and virtualenv manager:
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
Clone the repository and install the Python dependencies:
git clone https://github.com/lutris/website.git cd website uv sync
uv sync creates a project-local .venv/ and installs everything
from pyproject.toml, including the dev dependency group
(ruff, pylint, coverage, ipdb, debug toolbar). System-level build
dependencies are still required to compile psycopg2, Pillow, and lxml:
# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt-get install build-essential git curl \
imagemagick libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libssl-dev \
libffi-dev libpq-dev libjpeg-dev
# Red Hat / Fedora
sudo dnf install gcc make git curl ImageMagick \
libxml2-devel libxslt-devel openssl-devel \
libffi-devel libpq-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel zlib-devel
Environment variables live in .env.local at the repository root.
Copy the sample below and fill in real values:
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=lutrisweb.settings.local SECRET_KEY=changeme POSTGRES_DB=lutris POSTGRES_USER=lutris POSTGRES_PASSWORD=admin POSTGRES_HOST=localhost POSTGRES_PORT=5432 REDIS_HOST=localhost REDIS_PORT=6379 STEAM_API_KEY=your_steam_api_key DISCORD_CLIENT_ID=your_discord_client_id DISCORD_CLIENT_SECRET=your_discord_client_secret
Export UV_ENV_FILE in your shell (or add it to a direnv .envrc)
so that every uv run command below automatically loads the env
file:
export UV_ENV_FILE=.env.local
All subsequent examples assume this is set. If you'd rather be explicit,
pass --env-file .env.local to each uv run invocation instead.
To build the frontend assets (javascript and css files), you'll need Node and NPM available. If your distribution offers a version of Node that is too old, you can use NVM (https://github.com/creationix/nvm) to install a more recent version.
You can then build the frontend assets:
npm install npm run build
To watch for file changes and recompile assets on the fly, you can run in a separate terminal:
npm run watch
Once your PostgreSQL database is configured (explained in the paragraph below), run the database migrations to populate the database with tables:
uv run ./manage.py migrate
You can create a new admin user with the command:
uv run ./manage.py createsuperuser
Alternatively, if you want a database that is already populated with games, there are snapshots on the Github releases page: https://github.com/lutris/website/releases
The installer scripting documentation is not shipped with the website but
with the client. Building it is required, not optional: the test suite and
the installer editor both render templates/docs/installers.html, which
is generated from the client's rst files. Without it those tests fail with
TemplateDoesNotExist: docs/installers.html. Fetch the client and compile
the docs (the whole process is automated):
uv run make client uv run make docs
Once everything is set up correctly, you should be able to run the test suite without any failures:
uv run make test
Run the development server with:
uv run make run
The lutris websites uses Redis as a cache. Install with:
docker run -d \
--name lutriscache \
--restart unless-stopped \
-p 6379:6379 \
redis:latest
You can get the same Postgres server used in the Docker setup by running the following command:
docker run -d \
--name lutrisdb \
--restart unless-stopped \
--shm-size 4gb \
-e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=admin \
-e POSTGRES_DB=lutris \
-e POSTGRES_USER=lutris \
-p 5432:5432 \
-v lutrisdb_backups:/backups \
postgres:18
Dropping all tables from the database:
drop schema public cascade; create schema public;
Backing up the database:
pg_dump lutris > lutris.sql
Restoring a backup:
psql lutris < lutris.sql
To automate backups, make sure the Unix user has superuser privileges on PostgreSQL and run this script with cron:
cd /srv/backup/sql backup_file="lutris-$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M).tar" pg_dump --format=tar lutris > $backup_file gzip $backup_file
VSCode is recommended as a primary IDE for development. It provides an out of the box support for devcontainers - a modern full-featured development environment.
Latest version of VSCode with [devcontainers](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/devcontainers/containers) extension and Docker installed on your system.
After cloning the project choose the Reopen in Container` option from the VSCode menu. The bootstrap process will run automatically during the initial execution, encompassing all the steps mentioned in this tutorial.
From the menu, opt for the Reopen Folder Locally choice.
Wait until all containers have been stopped, which may take up to 10 seconds.
Proceed to remove the SQL DB volume using the command:
docker rm lutris-website_devcontainer_lutrisdb_1 docker volume rm lutris-website_devcontainer_postgres_data
Finally, select the Rebuild and Reopen in Container option from the VSCode menu.