# Developing with linked packages

If you want to make changes to a package that Element Call depends on and see those changes applied in real time, you can create a link to a local copy of the package. Pnpm has a command for this (`pnpm link`), but it's not recommended to use it as it ends up modifying package.json with details specific to your development environment.

test change DELETE ME

Instead, you can use our little 'linker' plugin. Create a file named `.links.cjs` in the Element Call project directory, listing the names and paths of any dependencies you want to link. For example:

```cjs
// Packages to link to local checkouts
module.exports = {
  "matrix-js-sdk": "../your/path/matrix-js-sdk",
  "matrix-widget-api": "../your/path/matrix-widget-api",
};
```

Then run `pnpm install`.

## Hooks

Changes in `.links.yaml` will also update `pnpm-lock.yaml` when `pnpm` is executed. The lockfile will then contain the local
version of the package which would not work on others dev setups or the github CI.

One always needs to run:

```bash
mv .links.cjs .links.disabled.cjs
yarn
```

before committing a change.

To make it more convenient to work with this linking system we added git hooks.
A `pre-commit` hook will run `mv .links.yaml .links.disabled.yaml`, `yarn` and `git add yarn.lock` if it detects
a `.links.yaml` file and abort the commit.
You will than need to check if the resulting changes are appropriate and commit again.

A `post-commit` hook will setup the linking as it was
before if a `.links.disabled.yaml` is present. It runs `mv .links.disabled.yaml .links.yaml` and `yarn`.

To activate the hooks automatically configure git with

```bash
git config --local core.hooksPath .githooks
```