3x-ui/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing

Thanks for taking the time to contribute to 3x-ui. This guide gets a development panel running locally and explains the conventions the project follows so changes land cleanly.

Prerequisites

• Go 1.26+ (the version pinned in go.mod)
• Node.js 22+ and npm 10+ (for the React frontend)
• Git
• A C compiler — required by the CGo SQLite driver (github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3). Linux and macOS already ship one; for Windows see below.

Windows: MinGW-w64

go build on Windows fails with cgo: C compiler "gcc" not found until a GCC toolchain is installed. Two options — pick whichever fits.

Option A — standalone zip (fastest, no package manager)

1. Download the latest build from https://github.com/niXman/mingw-builds-binaries/releases. For most setups, pick a release named:

   x86_64-<version>-release-posix-seh-ucrt-rt_<n>-rev<m>.7z
   

   (64-bit, POSIX threads, SEH exceptions, UCRT runtime — matches modern Windows defaults.)
2. Extract it somewhere stable, e.g. C:\mingw64\.
3. Add C:\mingw64\bin to the Windows PATH (System Properties → Environment Variables → Path → New).
4. Open a fresh terminal and confirm:

   gcc --version
   

Option B — MSYS2 (when a Unix shell is also useful)

1. Install MSYS2 from https://www.msys2.org/.
2. Open the MSYS2 UCRT64 shell from the Start menu and update once:

   pacman -Syu
   

3. Install the UCRT64 toolchain:

   pacman -S --needed mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-pkg-config
   

4. Add C:\msys64\ucrt64\bin to the Windows PATH.
5. Verify with gcc --version in a fresh terminal.

After either path, go build ./... and go run . work normally.

Why MinGW-w64 over MSVC: mattn/go-sqlite3 officially supports GCC, builds are faster on Windows, and the toolchain does not require a Visual Studio install. If Visual Studio Build Tools are already present that works too — just make sure CC=cl is not set in the environment.

Cross-building the Linux SQLite target from Windows (or vice versa) requires a separate cross-compiler and is out of scope here; build natively on the target OS.

First-time setup

git clone https://github.com/MHSanaei/3x-ui.git
cd 3x-ui

cp .env.example .env

mkdir x-ui

go mod download

cd frontend
npm install
npm run build
cd ..

.env.example ships with defaults that keep the database, logs, and xray binary inside the local x-ui/ folder so nothing escapes the project directory:

XUI_DEBUG=true
XUI_DB_FOLDER=x-ui
XUI_LOG_FOLDER=x-ui
XUI_BIN_FOLDER=x-ui

Drop the xray binary (xray-windows-amd64.exe on Windows, xray-linux-amd64 on Linux, etc.) plus the matching geoip.dat and geosite.dat files into x-ui/. The easiest source is a released Xray-core build. On Windows, wintun.dll is also required for testing TUN inbounds.

Running

go run .

Open http://localhost:2053 and log in with admin / admin. Credentials must be changed on first login.

Inside VS Code

The repo ships a launch profile in .vscode/launch.json (gitignored — copy from the snippet below if absent):

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Run 3x-ui (Debug)",
      "type": "go",
      "request": "launch",
      "mode": "auto",
      "program": "${workspaceFolder}",
      "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
      "env": {
        "XUI_DEBUG": "true",
        "XUI_DB_FOLDER": "x-ui",
        "XUI_LOG_FOLDER": "x-ui",
        "XUI_BIN_FOLDER": "x-ui"
      },
      "console": "integratedTerminal"
    }
  ]
}

Working on the frontend

The panel UI is a React 19 + Ant Design 6 + TypeScript app under frontend/, built with Vite 8. The sections below cover the architecture, the conventions, and the two dev workflows.

Architecture

The frontend is a multi-page application, not a SPA. Every panel route (/panel, /panel/inbounds, /panel/clients, /panel/xray, /panel/settings, /panel/nodes, /panel/api-docs, /panel/sub, plus login) has its own HTML entry in frontend/*.html and its own bootstrap in src/entries/<page>.tsx. Vite emits each entry into web/dist/, and the Go binary embeds that directory at compile time via embed.FS. Each panel navigation is a real document load, but every per-page bundle is small enough to keep the experience responsive. There is no React Router and no global store; the surface area does not justify either.

State and data flow

• No global store. State lives in the page that owns it. Cross-page data (settings, current user, theme) is re-fetched on each page load — the backend is local and responses are inexpensive.
• Hooks in src/hooks/ encapsulate reactive logic worth sharing inside a page (useTheme, useStatus, useNodes, useWebSocket, useDatepicker, …). Prefer extending an existing hook over introducing a new global.
• Domain models in src/models/ (Inbound, DBInbound, Outbound, Status, …) own the protocol-specific logic — link generation, settings JSON shape, TLS/Reality stream handling. React components stay declarative; they ask the model "what is my link?" and render the answer.
• HTTP goes through src/utils/index.js's HttpUtil, a thin Axios wrapper that handles CSRF, response toasts, and a silent: true opt-out for bulk operations that would otherwise spam toasts. The Axios setup itself lives in src/api/axios-init.js.

i18n

Locale strings live in web/translation/<locale>.json, not under frontend/. The Go binary embeds the same JSON and serves it to both backend templates and react-i18next (initialized in src/i18n/react.ts). When a new English key is added it must also land in every non-English locale — missing keys do not break the build, they just render the raw key in the UI.

Two dev workflows

Goal	Command
Iterate on UI changes with HMR	cd frontend && npm run dev (Vite on :5173, proxies /panel/* and /api/* to the Go panel on :2053). Start the Go panel first.
Verify what end users actually see	cd frontend && npm run build, then go run .. The Go binary serves the built bundle — embedded in release mode, off disk in debug mode.

The Vite dev proxy rewrites the sidebar's production-style links (/panel, /panel/inbounds, /panel/clients, …) to the matching Vite-served HTML, so navigation behaves identically to production without round-tripping through Go. The allowlist lives in MIGRATED_ROUTES in vite.config.js — register every new page there.

XUI_DEBUG=true gotcha — in debug mode the panel serves HTML from the embedded FS (frozen at the last go build / go run) but JS/CSS off disk. Re-running npm run build without restarting Go leaves the embedded HTML pointing at the old hashed asset names, producing a blank page with 404s in the console. Always restart go run . after a frontend rebuild.

Adding a new page

1. Create frontend/<page>.html (copy an existing entry and adjust the title and the imported <script type="module" src="/src/entries/<page>.tsx">).
2. Create src/entries/<page>.tsx — mount the page with createRoot(document.getElementById('app')!).render(...), wrapped in the shared ConfigProvider for AntD theming and i18n.
3. Create the page component under src/pages/<page>/<Page>.tsx (kebab-case folder, PascalCase component).
4. Register the entry in rollupOptions.input inside vite.config.js.
5. If the page is reachable from the sidebar at /panel/<route>, add <route> to MIGRATED_ROUTES so dev-mode navigation works.
6. Wire a Go controller route that calls serveDistPage(c, "<page>.html") to serve the embedded HTML in production.

Conventions

• TypeScript strict mode — all new code in .ts / .tsx. Run npm run typecheck (tsc --noEmit) before pushing. The path alias @/* resolves to src/*.
• Ant Design 6 is the only UI kit — no Tailwind, no shadcn. A previous attempt to migrate was rolled back. Small, targeted UX tweaks beat sweeping rewrites; raise broader visual changes for discussion before implementing.
• Function components + hooks everywhere. No class components.
• No // line comments in committed JS/TS/Vue/Go. HTML <!-- ... --> is fine for template structure. Names should carry the meaning; rename rather than annotate. Comments are reserved for the why, and only when the reason is surprising.
• RTL is a first-class concern. Persian and Arabic users matter — RTL is enabled through AntD's ConfigProvider direction="rtl". When writing Persian text in toasts or labels, isolate code identifiers on their own lines so RTL reading flows.
• Do not break link generation. Share-link generation has two paths: the inbounds page (InboundsPage.tsx → checkFallback()) and the clients page (/panel/api/clients/subLinks/:subId → backend GetSubs). Exercise both whenever URL generation, fallback projection, or TLS handling changes.
• Vite is pinned to 8.0.13. Do not bump to 8.0.14+ — the esbuild dep-optimizer in those builds breaks i18n loading in dev mode.

Project layout

frontend/
├── *.html                 — Vite entry HTML, one per panel route
├── tsconfig.json          — strict, jsx: "react-jsx", paths "@/*" → "src/*"
├── eslint.config.js       — ESLint 10 flat config (@eslint/js + typescript-eslint + react-hooks)
├── vite.config.js
└── src/
    ├── entries/           — per-page bootstrap (createRoot + render)
    ├── pages/             — one folder per route (index, login, inbounds, clients, xray, nodes, settings, api-docs, sub)
    ├── components/        — cross-page React components (AppSidebar, DateTimePicker, FinalMaskForm, JsonEditor, …)
    ├── hooks/             — reusable hooks (useTheme, useStatus, useNodes, useWebSocket, useDatepicker, …)
    ├── api/               — Axios setup + CSRF interceptor + WebSocket client
    ├── i18n/              — react-i18next bootstrap (JSON lives in web/translation/)
    ├── models/            — Inbound, DBInbound, Outbound, Status, reality-targets, …
    ├── styles/            — shared CSS (page-cards, …)
    └── utils/             — HttpUtil, ObjectUtil, LanguageManager, RandomUtil, SizeFormatter, …

For deeper notes on the frontend toolchain see frontend/README.md.

Project layout

Path	Contents
main.go	Process entry point, CLI subcommands, signal handling
web/	Gin HTTP server, controllers, services, embedded frontend assets
frontend/	React + Ant Design 6 + TypeScript source for the panel UI
database/	GORM models, migrations, seeders (SQLite / PostgreSQL)
xray/	Xray-core process lifecycle and gRPC API client
sub/	Subscription endpoints (raw, JSON, Clash)
config/	Environment-variable helpers, paths, defaults
x-ui/	Runtime data — db, logs, xray binary, geo files (gitignored)

Sending a pull request

1. Branch off main (e.g. feat/short-description).
2. Keep the diff focused — separate refactors from feature work.
3. Run the relevant checks before pushing:
   • go build ./...
   • go test ./... (when Go code changed)
   • cd frontend && npm run typecheck && npm run lint && npm run build (when the frontend changed)
4. Commit messages follow the existing pattern in git log — <area>: short imperative summary, then a body explaining the why. Conventional-commit prefixes (feat, fix, refactor, chore, style, docs) are encouraged.
5. Open the PR against main with a brief description of what changed and how to test it.

Useful environment variables

Variable	Default	Purpose
XUI_DEBUG	false	Verbose logs + Gin debug mode + serve /assets from disk
XUI_LOG_LEVEL	info	debug / info / notice / warning / error
XUI_DB_FOLDER	platform default	Where x-ui.db lives
XUI_LOG_FOLDER	platform default	Where 3xui.log lives
XUI_BIN_FOLDER	bin	Where the xray binary, geo files, and xray config.json live
XUI_DB_TYPE	sqlite	Set to postgres to use PostgreSQL via XUI_DB_DSN
XUI_DB_DSN	—	PostgreSQL DSN when XUI_DB_TYPE=postgres

Issues and discussion

• Bug reports and feature requests: GitHub Issues
• General questions and ideas: GitHub Discussions

Before filing a bug, include the OS, Go version, panel version (/panel/api/server/status or the dashboard footer), and the relevant excerpt from x-ui/3xui.log.