Toolpath DFM Template

A design-for-manufacturability application for uploading a CAD part, starting Toolpath Engine analysis, and inspecting the resulting features and mesh. Use this repository as a GitHub template to build your own Toolpath API powered product.

See https://developers.toolpath.com/ for documentation on using the Toolpath API.

Start here

1. Create a new github repository and select Start with a template to use this repository as a base to build your own application.

2. Install Node.js 24.18 or newer. Node.js is the program that runs this application on your computer. Download and install it from nodejs.org. Then open Terminal on macOS or Linux, or PowerShell on Windows, and run:

   node --version
   corepack enable

   The first command should show v24.18.0 or a higher version. Corepack comes with Node.js and turns on the exact version of pnpm that this project needs to install and run its files.

3. Create your private local settings file:

   pnpm setup:local

   This creates a private .env for each application — apps/dfm/.env and apps/catalog/.env — that stays on your computer and is not added to GitHub. It generates each session secret without displaying it and sets the standard Toolpath API URL. It also installs the application files it needs.

   This also installs the Husky pre-commit hook. It formats staged files automatically before each commit so you can have nice formatting without having to think about it.

4. Start the application:

   pnpm dev

   Open the local address shown in the terminal, usually http://localhost:5173. You are ready when the Toolpath connection screen appears.

Development

pnpm check # Run all quality checks, across every application and package
pnpm test:e2e # Run every Playwright E2E suite
pnpm dev # Start the DFM app on http://localhost:5173
pnpm dev:catalog # Start the tool catalog on http://localhost:5174
pnpm --filter @toolpath/dfm docker:build # Build DFM app docker container

Both applications pin their development port, so the two can run side by side. In production they default to ports 3000 and 3001 respectively.

The application uses released @toolpath/api, @toolpath/ui, and @toolpath/viewer NPM packages.

See the DFM application README for architecture and request-flow details.

Working on the tool catalog

Four things surprise people on their first day with apps/catalog. None of them is a bug.

Build the workspace packages before starting the dev server. They are consumed from dist/, which is not in git, so a fresh clone has nothing to link:

pnpm build        # or pnpm check, which builds as part of the gate
pnpm dev:catalog  # http://localhost:5174

A fresh checkout has nine tools, not seventeen thousand. Vendor data is the vendor's and is never committed, so catalog-dataset resolves to the committed sample and most features answer "nothing fits". To work against a real catalog, scrape one on your own machine:

pnpm --filter @toolpath/catalog-data scrape   # writes the gitignored scrape-out/

The dev server prints which dataset it picked at start-up. CATALOG_DATASET overrides the choice if you have a catalog.json from somewhere else.

Everyone brings their own Toolpath API key, typed into the application rather than kept in a file. Nothing secret travels with a branch.

Never run pnpm check while the dev server is running. It rebuilds the workspace packages underneath Vite, which then serves stale optimised dependencies and the page goes black. If that happens:

rm -rf apps/catalog/node_modules/.vite && pnpm dev:catalog

Then read docs/CATALOG-SPEC.md — how a shop uses the catalog, what each part of the screen is for, and the seven areas specified with their open questions. docs/FEATURE-LIST.md is the part page in full detail.

The applications in this workspace

Path	What it is
apps/dfm	The DFM application: upload a part, analyse it, inspect features and rules.
apps/catalog	The tool catalog: browse cutting tools, and match them to a part's features.
packages/	What the applications share, including the one place an API key is handled.

Code needed by both applications belongs in packages/ rather than in one of them — see AGENTS.md and docs/TOOL-CATALOG-PLAN.md.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.