If you’re looking to dive into the world of blockchain, particularly the innovative Flow framework designed for the next generation of games and applications, you’ve come to the right place! This guide will walk you through the essential steps for setting up Flow on your system and understanding its architecture.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Documentation
• Development Workflow

Installation

To unleash the power of Flow, follow these steps to install all necessary tools and dependencies:

Clone Repository

Start by cloning the Flow repository:

git clone https://github.com/onflow/flow-go

Install Dependencies

• Ensure you have Go installed (Flow supports Go 1.18 and later).
• Install Docker to run a local network and perform integration tests.
• Make sure your GOPATH and GOBIN environment variables are set. Add them to your shell profile:

export GOPATH=$(go env GOPATH)
export GOBIN=$GOPATH/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$GOBIN

• Next, run the installation command:

make install-tools

Now you should be ready to build, test, and run Flow!

Documentation

The Flow documentation website provides an in-depth overview of the architecture and various components of Flow. Each work stream has its home directory that contains high-level documentation.

Development Workflow

Testing

Flow provides unit and integration test suites:

• To run the unit test suite:

make test

• To run the integration test suite:

make integration-test

Building

If you want to build the Flow project, the recommended way is to use Docker:

• To build all nodes:

make docker-native-build-flow

• To build a specific node role (replace $ROLE accordingly):

make docker-native-build-$ROLE

Local Network

You can run a local version of the Flow network for manual testing. Refer to the Local Network Guide for instructions.

Code Generation

Keeping your generated code up-to-date is vital. Run the following commands to generate necessary code:

make generate
make generate-proto
make generate-openapi
make generate-mocks

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues during installation or while getting started, here are some tips:

• Ensure that you have the correct version of Go installed.
• If Docker commands fail, verify that Docker is running and properly configured.
• Check that all environment variables are correctly set by using echo $GOPATH and echo $GOBIN in your terminal.
• For persistent issues, consider checking the Flow community forums or GitHub for solutions.

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Conclusion

At fxis.ai, we believe that such advancements are crucial for the future of AI, as they enable more comprehensive and effective solutions. Our team is continually exploring new methodologies to push the envelope in artificial intelligence, ensuring that our clients benefit from the latest technological innovations.