Prerequisites

Before setting up the Tech Strategy Tool, ensure the following software is installed on your development machine.

Required Software

Software	Version	Purpose
.NET SDK	10.0 or later	Build and run the API and Blazor apps
Docker	20.10+ with Compose V2	Run PostgreSQL for development
Git	2.x	Source control

.NET SDK

The project targets net10.0. Install the .NET 10 SDK from dot.net.

Verify your installation:

dotnet --version

The output should show 10.0.x or later.

Docker

Docker is required to run the PostgreSQL database in development. Docker Compose V2 (the docker compose subcommand, not the legacy docker-compose binary) is used.

Verify your installation:

docker --version
docker compose version

Docker Desktop

On Windows and macOS, Docker Desktop provides both Docker Engine and Compose V2. On Linux, install Docker Engine and the Compose plugin separately.

Optional Tools

Software	Purpose
EF Core CLI (dotnet-ef)	Create and manage database migrations
A REST client (e.g., curl, Postman)	Test API endpoints directly
A modern browser	Chrome, Edge, or Firefox for the Blazor WASM frontends

To install the EF Core CLI tools:

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef

Ports Used

The development environment uses the following ports:

Port	Service
5001	ASP.NET Core API + Blazor WASM (HTTPS)
5000	ASP.NET Core API + Blazor WASM (HTTP)
5432	PostgreSQL (Docker)

SSE runs over the same HTTP/HTTPS connection — no additional ports are required.

Port Conflicts

If port 5001 or 5432 is already in use, you will need to either stop the conflicting service or reconfigure the ports. See Configuration for details on changing ports.

Next Steps

Once you have the prerequisites installed, proceed to the Quick Start guide.