Private development environment

Run a development copy of the website, connect page, and backend that only you can reach.

A development environment lets you test pairing, GitHub linking, and remote control against your own backend without touching production. It uses the same parts as your own cloud, with three extra locks so nobody else can use it.

Layout

Source checkouts read CONVEX_URL and VECTIS_WEB_URL from .env.local, so once the file is filled in, pairing and login links point at the development environment automatically.

Set it up

1. Follow Run your own cloud with development values. Set VECTIS_WEB_URL to https://vectis-dev.<account>.workers.dev.
2. Deploy the website with pnpm site:deploy:dev.
3. Lock the website. In the Cloudflare dashboard, open Workers & Pages, select vectis-dev, go to Settings > Domains & Routes, and choose Enable Cloudflare Access for workers.dev. Edit the vectis-dev - Production policy in Zero Trust so it allows only your email address. GitHub webhooks go straight to Convex, so nothing needs a bypass.
4. Lock sign-in. In the Clerk development instance, open Configure > Restrictions, turn on the allowlist with your email addresses, and enforce it on sign-in as well as sign-up. Nobody else can create an account or sign in, so nobody else can approve a pairing or control a machine.
5. Lock the GitHub App. Create it with VECTIS_GITHUB_APP_PUBLIC=false, so it can only be installed on the account that owns it.

Check the locks

• In a private browser window, https://vectis-dev.<account>.workers.dev/connect shows the Cloudflare Access login instead of the page.
• Signing in or signing up with another email address is refused.
• The App’s public page on GitHub offers installation only to its owner.

Use it

export VECTIS_HOME="$(mktemp -d)"
pnpm build
pnpm vectis service start
pnpm vectis cloud pair

The pairing link opens your development /connect page. Pass --home or VECTIS_HOME to keep test machines separate from ~/.vectis-dev.