[nix](https://github.com/NixOS/nix) and `git-lfs` should be installed at
this point, and have been used to `make build` the project.
Designing interfaces within urbit/urbit additionally requires that the [instructions](https://urbit.org/using/develop/#creating-a-development-ship) for fake `~zod` initialization have been followed.
Once your fake ship is running and you see
```
~zod:dojo>
```
in your console, be sure to 'mount' your ship's working state (what we call 'desks') to your local machine via the
`|mount %` command. This will ensure that code you modify locally can be
committed to your ship and initialized.
To begin developing Urbit's frontend, you'll need to sync your
currently-running fake ship with the urbit/urbit repo's code. Find the
`urbitrc-sample` file found at `urbit/pkg/interface/urbitrc-sample` (in this folder). Open it
using your preferred code editor and you should see the following:
```
module.exports = {
URBIT_PIERS: [
"/Users/user/ships/zod/home",
]
};
```
Edit the path between quotes `/Users/user/ships/zod/home` with wherever your
fake ship is located on your machine. This zod location path *must* end in `../home` to correctly intitalize
any code you write. Any code edited within the `urbit/urbit`will now be able to be synced to your running
ship, and previewed in the browser.
To set up urbit's Javascript environment, you'll need node (ideally installed
via [nvm](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm)) and gulp, which will be installed
via node.
Perform the following steps to get the above set up for urbit's apps:
```
## go to urbit's interface directory and install the required tooling
cd urbit/pkg/interface
npm install
npm install -g gulp
## assuming you are still in `urbit/pkg/interface`,
## open a single app directory, and watch it for changes
cd contacts/
gulp watch
```
Any changes made to any files within the `/contacts` directory will now
trigger a gulp rebuild when saved. To sync these changes to your running
ship, enter dojo and input the following:
```
|commit %home
```
Your urbit should take a moment to process the changes, and will emit a
`>=`. Refreshing your browser will display the newly-rendered interface.
Once you are done editing code, and wish to commit changes to git, stop
`gulp watch` and run `gulp bundle-prod` to ensure you are only
committing 1 minified line of compiled js and not 3000+.
An additional note:
As compiled Javascript is not present in the urbit/urbit repository,
you'll need to run `.sh/build-interface` in order to see changes that
have been committed to any given branch you might be working on. It's
always a good idea to run the above command before starting development
