directus/README.md

directus

The TRM business plane. Directus 11 instance owning the relational schema (organizations, users, events, entries, course definition, penalty system, timing tables), exposing it through auto-generated REST/GraphQL APIs and the admin UI, and enforcing role-based permissions.

For the architectural specification see ../docs/wiki/entities/directus.md. For the work plan and task status see .planning/ROADMAP.md.

This service is part of the TRM (Time Racing Management) platform.

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Schema management — at a glance

Schema is defined and migrated through Directus, with two artifact directories:

• snapshots/schema.yaml — Directus collections, fields, relations. Generated locally via directus schema snapshot, applied at container startup via directus schema apply.
• db-init/*.sql — schema Directus does not manage: the postgres-timescaledb positions hypertable, the faulty column, PostGIS-specific DDL, etc. Sequential numbered files (001_, 002_, …) applied by scripts/apply-db-init.sh with a migrations_applied guard table to skip already-run files.

Apply order at boot: db-init first, then directus schema apply, then directus start. Any failure halts boot.

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Quick start (local)

Prerequisites: Docker, the directus/directus:11.17.4 image (pulled automatically by compose), a running Postgres 16 + TimescaleDB + PostGIS instance (provided by compose.dev.yaml).

git clone <repo-url>
cd directus
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env — at minimum set DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_DATABASE, KEY, SECRET
docker compose -f compose.dev.yaml up --build

Admin UI lands at http://localhost:8055. Default admin credentials are read from ADMIN_EMAIL / ADMIN_PASSWORD in .env.

After making schema changes in the admin UI, snapshot before commit:

pnpm run schema:snapshot
git add snapshots/schema.yaml && git commit

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Test the image locally

compose.dev.yaml builds the image from source and runs it next to a TimescaleDB+PostGIS container. Useful for verifying Dockerfile changes, db-init migrations, or snapshot apply behavior before pushing.

docker compose -f compose.dev.yaml down -v   # wipe volumes for a fresh run
docker compose -f compose.dev.yaml up --build

The entrypoint runs db-init, then directus schema apply, then directus start. Watch the logs to confirm each step exits 0.

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Production / stage deployment

This service is not deployed standalone. It runs as part of the platform stack defined in the deploy/ repo, which Portainer pulls and runs on the stage and production hosts.

The image itself is published to git.dev.microservices.al/trm/directus:main on every push to main (see CI behavior below). The deploy/ repo's compose.yaml references that image.

To pin a specific commit in production, set DIRECTUS_TAG=<sha> in the deploy stack's environment variables.

Note: The deploy/compose.yaml will need a directus service entry referencing this image, plus a TimescaleDB+PostGIS service if not already present, before this service can run in stage/production. See .planning/phase-1-slice-1-schema/07-image-and-dockerfile.md.

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Environment variables

See .env.example for the full list. Required for boot:

Variable	Description
DB_CLIENT	pg (always)
DB_HOST / DB_PORT / DB_DATABASE / DB_USER / DB_PASSWORD	Postgres connection
KEY	Directus instance key (random UUID)
SECRET	Directus JWT signing secret (random)
ADMIN_EMAIL / ADMIN_PASSWORD	Bootstrap admin (only used on first init)
PUBLIC_URL	External-facing URL of the instance

All other Directus envs (cache, logging, CORS, etc.) follow upstream defaults unless overridden.

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CI behavior

Gitea Actions workflow lands at .gitea/workflows/build.yml in Phase 1 task 1.8 — not yet present.

When the workflow exists:

• Push to main (only when snapshots/, db-init/, extensions/, Dockerfile, or the workflow file itself changes): builds the image, spins up a throwaway Postgres + TimescaleDB + PostGIS via services:, runs apply-db-init.sh and directus schema apply --yes against it as a dry-run, then publishes the image tagged :main if the dry-run exits 0. Auto-deploys to stage if a Portainer webhook is configured via secrets.PORTAINER_WEBHOOK_URL.
• Manual trigger (workflow_dispatch): same flow, run on demand.

The dry-run is non-negotiable — it catches snapshot drift, broken db-init scripts, and incompatible schema changes before they touch any real DB.