Start by adding a few more notes to the `hacking` doc and add a
sub-document with detailed instructions for setting up meta.sr.ht.

Detailed descriptions for other services will follow the same pattern.
---
 hacking.md            | 56 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 hacking/meta.sr.ht.md | 60 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 116 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 hacking/meta.sr.ht.md

diff --git a/hacking.md b/hacking.md
index 7c00e75..0e440f3 100644
--- a/hacking.md
+++ b/hacking.md
@@ -11,12 +11,68 @@ contributing to SourceHut.
 Here are some tips to expedite the installation procedure:
 
 * A PostgreSQL database and Redis server are always required.
+* Some services require a S3-compatible storage backend - install minio.
 * Generally, you can skip the webhooks daemons unless you need them.
 * Always prefer package installations for obtaining dependencies.
 * You can *usually* get away without configuring the outgoing mail settings,
   but you may still have to generate a PGP key to get things started up.
 * You can skip setting up a reverse proxy and use our development servers via
   `python3 run.py` instead.
+* Some services depend on other services (see instructions for each service),
+  but in any case you should start with setting up meta.sr.ht
+
+## Required daemons
+
+### PostgreSQL
+
+The instructions will contain commands like `createdb git.sr.ht`. This assumes
+that you have PostgreSQL up and running and created a user by the same name as
+your login user name. Otherwise, the commands may have to be adjusted. Consult
+your distribution's or PostgreSQL's documentation for details.
+
+### Redis
+
+Simply installing Redis and having it running on the default port should be
+sufficient.
+
+### Minio
+
+*NOTE:* only needed for certain services, see list below
+
+Install the minio server and set `MINIO_ROOT_USER` and `MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD` in
+the config file. While you shouldn't do this in production you can use these
+values as `s3-access-key` and `s3-secret-key` in the `[objects]` section of
+your `config.ini`. To make sure to not accidentally expose your setup on the
+network, also set `MINIO_OPTS="--address 127.0.0.1:9123"`
+
+Install the minio client. Upstream refers to it as `mc`, but most distributions
+package it as `mcli` to avoid ambiguity. Set up an alias for your local
+connection, e.g.:
+
+    mcli alias set local/ http://localhost:9123 <username> <password>
+
+## Required tooling
+
+For building from source, some tools are required that are not a dependency of
+the packages. They are:
+
+* `sassc` for CSS pre-processing
+* `npm` for minifying CSS
+* `go` for compiling the Go APIs
+
+## List of services
+
+* [meta.sr.ht](/hacking/meta.sr.ht.md)
+* todo.sr.ht
+* hub.sr.ht
+* git.sr.ht
+* hg.sr.ht
+* pages.sr.ht
+* paste.sr.ht
+* lists.sr.ht
+* man.sr.ht
+* builds.sr.ht
+
 
 # Sending Patches
 
diff --git a/hacking/meta.sr.ht.md b/hacking/meta.sr.ht.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..35411d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hacking/meta.sr.ht.md
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+---
+title: Hacking on SourceHut - meta.sr.ht
+toc: false
+---
+
+# Hacking on meta.sr.ht
+
+Start by cloning the repository somewhere, along with core.sr.ht:
+
+    cd ~/src
+    git clone --recurse-submodules https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/core.sr.ht
+    git clone https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/meta.sr.ht
+    cd meta.sr.ht
+
+Then configure `PYTHONPATH` to look up these directories, and set up
+`SRHT_PATH`:
+
+    export PYTHONPATH=$HOME/src/core.sr.ht:$HOME/src/meta.sr.ht
+    export SRHT_PATH=$HOME/src/core.sr.ht/srht
+
+Generate static assets and build the API:
+
+    make
+    cd api && go build
+
+The next step is getting the configuration right for meta.sr.ht. Start with the
+example config file (`mv config.example.ini config.ini`) and populate the
+various fields. For the service-independent `[sr.ht]` section, the keys can be
+generated with `srht-keygen` found in core.sr.ht and the `redis-host` field
+should be set to `redis://127.0.0.1`. Additionally, set
+`global-domain=127.0.0.1` to ensure cookies are created with the correct
+parameters.
+
+The `[mail]` section doesn’t need to be populated, except for the PGP key. See
+the comment in the sample config for instructions. Make sure to use an absolute
+path to the key, as we will link to this config file from other places.
+
+Then comes the `[meta.sr.ht]` section. Set `origin=http://127.0.0.1:5000` (port
+same as `debug-port`). Append `?sslmode=disable` to the database
+connection-string to allow the services to connect without TLS.
+
+To create and initialize the database:
+
+    createdb meta.sr.ht
+    ./metasrht-initdb
+
+If you later update meta.sr.ht, run `./metasrht-migrate upgrade head` to run
+database migrations.
+
+Create a new admin user:
+
+    ./metasrht-manageuser -t admin root
+
+Once all that preparation work is done, meta.sr.ht should be ready to be started:
+
+    ./api/api &
+    python run.py
+
+You should be able to browse your local meta.sr.ht instance at
+http://localhost:5000 and e.g. create new users and log in as those.
-- 
2.35.1

If you are ok with this pattern I will gradually add the instructions 
for the other services.

Overall LGTM

On Thu Feb 24, 2022 at 5:06 PM CET, Conrad Hoffmann wrote:
>  * A PostgreSQL database and Redis server are always required.
> +* Some services require a S3-compatible storage backend - install minio.

* Some services require (or may optionally make use of) an S3-compatible
  storage backend. [Minio] is recommended for this purpose.

>  * Generally, you can skip the webhooks daemons unless you need them.
>  * Always prefer package installations for obtaining dependencies.
>  * You can *usually* get away without configuring the outgoing mail settings,
>    but you may still have to generate a PGP key to get things started up.
>  * You can skip setting up a reverse proxy and use our development servers via
>    `python3 run.py` instead.
> +* Some services depend on other services (see instructions for each service),
> +  but in any case you should start with setting up meta.sr.ht

* Some services depend on other services. Some such integrations are
  optional, but all services depend on meta.sr.ht.

> +## Required daemons
> +
> +### PostgreSQL
> +
> +### Redis
> +
> +### Minio

-1 to writing documentation for other projects

> +## Required tooling
> +
> +For building from source, some tools are required that are not a dependency of
> +the packages. They are:

In addition to the runtime dependencies of our packages, building
packages from source requires additional build-time dependencies:

> +## List of services
> +
> +* [meta.sr.ht](/hacking/meta.sr.ht.md)
> +* todo.sr.ht
> +* hub.sr.ht
> +* git.sr.ht
> +* hg.sr.ht
> +* pages.sr.ht
> +* paste.sr.ht
> +* lists.sr.ht
> +* man.sr.ht
> +* builds.sr.ht

Not that I care, but this is missing dispatch. Should also probably be
alpha sorted.

> +# Hacking on meta.sr.ht
> +

Add:

Hacking on these projects can be somewhat subjective and flexible. You
may want or need to modify or skip some of these instructions to suit
your individual needs.

> +Generate static assets and build the API:
> +
> +    make
> +    cd api && go build

Following adnano's changes to Makefiles in git.sr.ht to support building
the API, can you make these changes uniform across all projects with a
GraphQL API and update this line in the docs?

> +The next step is getting the configuration right for meta.sr.ht. Start with the
> +example config file (`mv config.example.ini config.ini`) and populate the
> +various fields. For the service-independent `[sr.ht]` section, the keys can be
> +generated with `srht-keygen` found in core.sr.ht and the `redis-host` field
> +should be set to `redis://127.0.0.1`. Additionally, set
> +`global-domain=127.0.0.1` to ensure cookies are created with the correct
> +parameters.

I would advise reading the config here, it has instructions written into
the comments.