Star on GitHub
Star on GitHub

Installation Guide

Quick Install

# 1. Clone
git clone https://github.com/prsense-labs/prsense
cd prsense

# 2. Install dependencies
npm install

# 3. Build
npm run build

# 4. Configure
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your API keys

# 5. Run
npm run server

Zero Config Mode (Fastest Start)

[!TIP] No API key? No problem! PRSense works immediately using local ONNX embeddings.

# 1. Clone & install
git clone https://github.com/prsense-labs/prsense
cd prsense
npm install
npm run build

# 2. Run immediately — no API key needed!
npx prsense check --title "Fix login bug" --files "auth.ts"

Output:

Using ONNX local embeddings (no API key found)
Checking PR...
UNIQUE (Confidence: 0.000)

This uses:

  • SQLite (auto-created, no setup)
  • ONNX embeddings (runs 100% locally, privacy-first)

Want higher accuracy? Add an OpenAI key (see below). Need scale? Use PostgreSQL (see Production Setup).

Detailed Installation

Prerequisites

  • Node.js: v18+ (v20 recommended)
  • npm: v9+
  • Git: For cloning

Check versions:

node --version # Should be v18+
npm --version # Should be v9+

Step 1: Get the Code

Option A: Clone from GitHub

git clone https://github.com/prsense-labs/prsense
cd prsense

Option B: Download ZIP

# Download from: https://github.com/prsense-labs/prsense/archive/main.zip
unzip prsense-main.zip
cd prsense-main

Step 2: Install Dependencies

Basic (Minimum)

npm install

This installs:

  • TypeScript
  • Express
  • Type definitions

With Database Support

# For SQLite (development)
npm install better-sqlite3

# For PostgreSQL (production)
npm install pg

For Vercel Deployment

npm install @vercel/node

For Local Embeddings (ONNX)

npm install onnxruntime-node

Install Everything

npm install
npm install better-sqlite3 pg @vercel/node

Step 3: Build TypeScript

npm run build

Output:

> prsense@2.0.0 build
> tsc

# Creates dist/ folder with compiled JS

Verify build:

ls dist/
# Should see: src/ bin/ examples/ api/

Step 4: Configure Environment

Create .env file

cp .env.example .env

Edit with your keys

nano .env
# or
code .env
# or
notepad .env

Minimum required:

# .env
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key-here

Full production config:

# .env

# Embedding Provider (openai or onnx)
EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=openai

# OpenAI (required if provider is openai)
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key-here
OPENAI_MODEL=text-embedding-3-small

# ONNX (optional - defaults used if not set)
# ONNX_MODEL_PATH=./models/all-MiniLM-L6-v2.onnx

# Database (optional - uses SQLite if not set)
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/prsense

# GitHub (for bot)
GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your-token
GITHUB_WEBHOOK_SECRET=random-secret-123

# Thresholds (optional)
DUPLICATE_THRESHOLD=0.90
POSSIBLE_THRESHOLD=0.82

# Server (optional)
PORT=3000
NODE_ENV=production

Step 5: Get API Keys

OpenAI API Key (Optional - for higher accuracy)

[!NOTE] This is optional. Without an API key, PRSense uses local ONNX embeddings automatically.

  1. Go to: https://platform.openai.com/api-keys
  2. Click “Create new secret key”
  3. Copy key (starts with sk-...)
  4. Add to .env:
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-...

Cost: ~$0.0001 per PR (very cheap)

GitHub Token (For Bot)

  1. Go to: https://github.com/settings/tokens
  2. Generate new token (classic)
  3. Select scopes:
  • repo (full control)
  • write:discussion
  1. Copy token (starts with ghp_...)
  2. Add to .env:
GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_...

Step 6: Test Installation

Test basic functionality

npm run demo

Expected output:

PRSense Demo

Submitting PR #1...
Result: { type: 'UNIQUE', confidence: 0 }

Statistics:
{ totalPRs: 3, bloomFilterSize: 8192, duplicatePairs: 0 }

Test CLI

npm run cli help

Expected output:

PRSense - Duplicate PR Detection

USAGE:
prsense <command> [options]

COMMANDS:
check <file> Check if a PR is a duplicate
stats Show detector statistics

Test server (optional)

npm run server

Expected output:

PRSense server running on port 3000
Webhook URL: http://localhost:3000/webhook
Health check: http://localhost:3000/health

Test health:

curl http://localhost:3000/health
# {"status":"healthy","timestamp":1234567890}

Verification Checklist

Node.js installed (v18+) Dependencies installed (npm install succeeded) TypeScript built (dist/ folder exists) .env configured (OPENAI_API_KEY set) Demo runs (npm run demo works)

If all , you’re ready!

Next Steps

For GitHub Bot

→ See Deployment Guide → See CLI Usage → See Quick Start

Troubleshooting

”Cannot find module"

# Rebuild
npm run rebuild

"Permission denied"

# On Unix/Mac
chmod +x node_modules/.bin/*

# Or use npm scripts instead of direct commands
npm run build # Instead of: tsc

"TypeScript errors"

# Update TypeScript
npm install typescript@latest

# Check tsconfig.json is present
ls tsconfig.json

"OPENAI_API_KEY not set”

# Check .env exists
ls .env

# Check it's loaded
node -e "require('dotenv').config(); console.log(process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY)"

Uninstall

# Remove all
cd ..
rm -rf prsense

# Or keep code, remove deps
cd prsense
rm -rf node_modules dist

Alternative: Docker Install

# 1. Clone
git clone https://github.com/prsense-labs/prsense
cd prsense

# 2. Configure
cp .env.example .env
nano .env

# 3. Build & run
docker-compose up -d

# 4. Check health
curl http://localhost:3000/health

No npm needed! Docker handles everything.

Platform-Specific Notes

Windows

# Use Git Bash or PowerShell
npm install
npm run build
npm run demo

macOS

# May need to install build tools
xcode-select --install

# Then install
npm install

Linux

# Install build essentials (for better-sqlite3)
sudo apt-get install build-essential python3

# Then install
npm install

Getting Help

Installation issues?

  1. Check Troubleshooting above
  2. Read CLI Usage
  3. Open issue: https://github.com/prsense-labs/prsense/issues

Ready to use? → See CLI Usage for usage examples