Sitecore XM Cloud Local Setup without Docker

Question

Is there an alternative way to setup Sitecore XM Cloud local development environment without Docker? (Hitting lot of company security issues with Docker setup)

Answer 1

You can run the front application locally and connect to XM Cloud for your CM. To do this you will need to:

• make a copy of the .env file and call it .env.local
• Edit these variable values:
  • SITECORE_API_KEY - this needs to be your API key from /sitecore/settings/services/api keys/xmcloudpreview - use the item ID.
  • GRAPH_QL_ENDPOINT - set to https://<url to your cm instance>/sitecore/api/graph/edge
  • JSS_APP_NAME - the name of your site/app name from the settings item

Run the application by going to the root of your next.js application and running:

npm run start:connected

This will run the app on http://localhost:3000 and be connected to the preview end point on your CM instance.

If you want to run the full CM instance locally, Docker is your only option.

Docs are here: https://doc.sitecore.com/xmc/en/developers/xm-cloud/walkthrough--connecting-the-next-js-application-directly-to-the-experience-edge-endpoint.html

Although the above docs connect your application to Experience Edge directly vs the preview end point. IMO, for development you should connect to the preview end point as it saves time when you don't have to publish items to get access to them.