It is possible to connect the Prosody AppImage to a remote debugger using [MobDebug](https://luarocks.org/modules/paulclinger/mobdebug).

To do so, you have to setup MobDebug in a folder that can be accessed by the `peertube` user. Then, add this in the `debub_mode` file:

{
"debug_prosody": {
"debugger_path": "/the_path_to_mobdebug/src",
"host": "localhost",
"port": "8172"
}
}

`host` and `port` are optional. `debugger_path` must point to the folder where the `MobDebug` `.lua` file is.

Restart Peertube.

Start your debugger server.

For Prosody to connect to the debugger, call the API `http://your_instance.tld/plugins/livechat/router/api/restart_prosody?debugger=true`. This call does not need any authentication. It can be done from a command line, for example with `curl http://your_instance.tld/plugins/livechat/router/api/restart_prosody?debugger=true`. You can even configure your debug server to launch this request automatically.

Prosody will then restart, connecting to the debugger.

Quick dev environment using Docker

There is a tutorial, in french, on the [Peertube forum](https://framacolibri.org/t/tutoriel-creer-un-environnement-de-developpement-de-plugin-peertube-rapidement-en-utilisant-docker-et-qui-permet-de-tester-la-federation/17631) that explains how to quickly build a dev env using Docker.

A repo was made out of it, check out [pt-plugin-dev](https://codeberg.org/mose/pt-plugin-dev).

Note: for an unknown reason, Prosody can't resolve containers DNS address when using the lua-unbound library. There is a dirty hack in the plugin: just create a `/data/plugins/data/peertube-plugin-livechat/no_lua_unbound` file in your docker-volumes, then restart containers.

Quickly rebuild and install the plugin

When you do modification, you don't have to always rebuild the full project, and reinstall the plugin on your dev environment. You can build only the modified part (for example, if you only modified client files: `npm run build:client`). Check the `package.json` files for available build scripts.

When the plugin is already installed on your dev instance, and you haven't changed any dependency, you can quickly install your work by following these steps:

re-build necessary parts of the plugin (client, styles, ...),

overwrite the `data/plugins/node_modules/peertube-plugin-livechat/dist/` content of your dev instance by the content of the plugin's `dist` folder,

change recursively `plugins/node_modules/peertube-plugin-livechat/dist/` files owner to your `peertube` user,

restart your instance.

Performance tests