backend

README

TinyAutomator

TinyAutomator is a lightweight, extensible backend platform for building and executing custom workflow automations. Built with Go and the Gin web framework, it supports dynamic workflows composed of triggers and actions—designed to be intuitive for both technical and non-technical users. The system powers drag-and-drop automation flows similar in spirit to Zapier, while prioritizing performance, developer flexibility, and scalability.

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🔁 Backend Hot Reloading with Air

We use air for automatic hot reloading during development of the Go backend.

📦 Installation (One-time setup)

go install github.com/air-verse/air@latest

try:

which air

If not a valid command make sure $GOPATH/bin is in your system PATH:

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

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🧪 Running the Backend with Hot Reload

From the root of the project:

cd backend
air

This watches for changes to .go, .html, .tpl, etc. and restarts the server on each save.

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🧰 .air.toml Config

The air config file is stored in backend/.air.toml.

It includes:

• Output binary path: backend/tmp/main
• File extensions to watch
• Delay settings for rebuilds
• Option to proxy and auto-reload browser (disabled by default)

You can customize this as needed. [example]

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📂 Git Ignore Reminder

Make sure the air tmp/ directory is excluded in .gitignore:

# Air build output
backend/tmp/

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🧼 Pre-commit Hooks

We use pre-commit to enforce code quality and formatting before commits.

When you commit changes, the following hooks are run automatically:

• trailing-whitespace – removes trailing whitespace
• end-of-file-fixer – ensures files end with a single newline
• check-yaml – validates .yml and .yaml syntax
• check-added-large-files – warns on large files
• golangci-lint – lints Go code in the backend/ directory using golangci-lint run
• golangci-fmt – formats Go code in the backend/ directory using golangci-lint fmt

We use golangci-lint to lint and format our backend go code.

📦 Installation (one-time setup)

pip install pre-commit

If pip does not work, try pip3 otherwise you may have to install pip.

⚙️ Enabling hooks

Run this once after cloning the repo:

pre-commit install

🧪 Testing hooks

To run all hooks manually:

pre-commit run --all-files

📁 Config location

All hook configuration is defined in .pre-commit-config.yaml at the project root. Hooks targeting the Go backend are scoped using:

entry: bash -c "cd backend && <command>"

This ensures formatting and linting happen relative to the Go module in backend/.