## Development Environment Recommendations

This stack is most maintainable when the dev environment is repeatable and
configuration is centralized. The current scripts assume Ubuntu 16.04 and
hard-coded dependencies. The goal here is to make the environment predictable
without touching the protocol or rewriting core services.

Key recommendations:

- Standardize the dev workflow with containers (prefer `docker-compose`).
- Centralize ports, credentials, and paths into a single `.env` file.
- Provide a single entrypoint script to build/start/stop/log services.
- Keep database and service initialization scripted and idempotent.

## Focused Plan (Maintainability Only)

Phase 1: Audit and Baseline (1–3 days)

- Inventory the current scripts and dependencies in `hearthmod/`.
- Confirm service ports and startup order (gameserver → lobbyserver → web).
- Capture required Couchbase buckets and data seed steps.

Phase 2: Repeatable Local Environment (1–2 weeks)

- Add `docker-compose.yml` to orchestrate Couchbase, gameserver, lobbyserver,
  and web services.
- Add `.env.example` for all required configuration values.
- Create a single `./dev` or `./scripts/dev.sh` entrypoint:
  - `dev build` (build C services and web assets)
  - `dev up` (start all services)
  - `dev down` (stop services)
  - `dev logs` (tail logs)

Phase 3: Configuration Cleanup (1–2 weeks)

- Replace hard-coded ports and credentials with env-configured values.
- Add a minimal config loader in `hm_web` and in C servers (config file or env).
- Update nginx config to use env-substituted paths.

Phase 4: Minimal Tests + Docs (1 week)

- Add a simple smoke test script that validates service ports and Couchbase
  connectivity.
- Document the workflow in `README-dev.md` and update top-level README with a
  pointer.

## Deliverables Checklist

- `docker-compose.yml` with defined services and volumes
- `.env.example` with required config variables
- A single dev entrypoint script
- Updated docs (this file) and a quick-start section

## Non-Goals (Intentionally Deferred)

- Updating Hearthstone protocol compatibility
- Rewriting the database or switching away from Couchbase
- Migrating C services to a different language

If you want, I can start by drafting the `docker-compose.yml` and a `dev` script
tailored to the current repo layout.