PROMPT 2.0: A Modular and Scalable Management Platform for Project-Based Teaching

What is PROMPT?

PROMPT (Project-Oriented Modular Platform for Teaching) is a course management tool built to simplify the administration of project-based university courses.

Originally developed for the iPraktikum at the Technical University of Munich, PROMPT is now a modular and extensible platform that adapts to the needs of instructors and scales across different teaching formats.

Key Features

Core Features

• Course Configuration: Build custom course flows using reusable course phases.
• Student Management: Manage participant data and applications.
• Application Phase: Streamlined workflows for student applications.

Dynamically Loaded Course Phases

PROMPT supports custom course phases as independently deployable modules:

• 🗓 Interview Phase – Schedule and manage student interviews.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Team Phase – Allocate students to projects and teams.
• 📄 TUM Matching Export – Export data in TUM-compatible format.
• 🧩 Custom Phases – Easily extend PROMPT with your own logic.

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Guide to PROMPT

Explore the live system here 👉 https://prompt.aet.cit.tum.de/

PROMPT is built for teaching teams who run complex project-based university courses. This guide gives you a first impression of the product, its modules, and typical workflows.

Build and Configure Courses

PROMPT lets you define courses by combining reusable “phases”:

• Add application, interview, matching, and many more phases
• Define prerequisites and outcomes for each phase

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Manage Students and Teams

PROMPT provides powerful tools for handling student participation throughout your course:

• Track incoming applications and monitor their progress
• Schedule and conduct interviews with applicants
• Form teams and assign projects using manual or semi-automated workflows
• Evaluate student performance on a per-phase basis, enabling you to decide who passes or fails at each stage of the course independently

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Extend PROMPT with Custom Phases

Each course phase can be developed and plugged in independently—ideal for institutions with evolving or specialized workflows.

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Development Guide

This section is for developers and contributors looking to run PROMPT locally or contribute to its development.

Project Structure

Clients

• Built with React, TypeScript, and Webpack Module Federation
• Micro-frontends for each course phase
• Shared design system using shadcn/ui

Server

• Developed in Go
• Core service + modular service architecture for each course phase
• PostgreSQL for data storage
• Keycloak for authentication

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

Tool	Version	Installation
Go	1.26+	go.dev/doc/install
Node.js	22.10.0 - 22.x	nodejs.org
Docker	Latest	docker.com
golang-migrate	Latest	github.com/golang-migrate/migrate
sqlc	Latest	docs.sqlc.dev

1. Enable Corepack (for Yarn 4)

# macOS with Homebrew (Homebrew strips corepack from Node)
brew install corepack

# Other platforms (included with Node 16.9+)
npm install -g corepack

# Enable corepack
corepack enable

2. Clone & Configure Environment

git clone https://github.com/prompt-edu/prompt.git
cd prompt

# Create environment files from templates
cp .env.template .env
cp .env.dev.template .env.dev  # Local development overrides

The .env file contains Docker/production configuration. The .env.dev file contains local development overrides (localhost instead of Docker hostnames) and is loaded by make server.

3. Start Database & Keycloak

docker compose up -d db keycloak

4. Configure Keycloak (first time only)

1. Navigate to http://localhost:8081

2. Login with username admin and password admin

3. In the top-left dropdown, select Create Realm and upload keycloakConfig.json

4. In the new Prompt realm, create a user:

   • Go to Users → Add user
   • Fill in all required fields (these are needed for token claims):
     • Username
     • Email (required)
     • First name (required)
     • Last name (required)
   • Click Join Groups and select PROMPT-Admins
   • Go to Credentials tab and set a password
   • Go to Attributes tab and add:
     • university_login → ab12cde
     • matriculation_number → 01234567

5. Configure client mappers (to include user attributes in tokens):

   • Go to Clients → prompt-server → Client scopes tab

   • Click prompt-server-dedicated

   • Click Add mapper → By configuration → User Attribute

   • Create mappers for each attribute:

     Name	User Attribute	Token Claim Name	Claim JSON Type
     university_login	university_login	university_login	String
     matriculation_number	matriculation_number	matriculation_number	String

   • Ensure Add to ID token and Add to access token are enabled

6. Generate a client secret:

   • Go to Clients → prompt-server → Credentials
   • Click Regenerate and copy the secret
   • Paste the secret into your .env.dev and .env files as KEYCLOAK_CLIENT_SECRET

5. Start the Server

The .env file is not automatically loaded by Go. Use one of these methods:

1. Use Make (recommended, works in any shell):

   make server

2. Manual export (bash/zsh only):

   set -a && source .env.dev && set +a
   cd servers/core && go run main.go

6. Start the Clients

make clients
# or manually:
cd clients && yarn install && yarn run dev

This launches all micro-frontends simultaneously using Lerna. The app runs at http://localhost:3000.

To start a specific micro-frontend only, navigate to its subdirectory and run yarn run dev there.

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Useful Commands

# Generate sqlc code (after changing SQL queries)
cd servers/<service> && sqlc generate

# Run Go tests
cd servers/<service> && go test ./...

# Lint clients
cd clients && yarn eslint "core" --config "core/eslint.config.mjs"

# Add shadcn/ui component
cd clients/shared_library && yarn dlx shadcn add <component-name>

API Spec Generation (Swagger)

We generate and commit swagger specs for the Go servers. To avoid forgetting this, install the repo-managed git hooks:

./scripts/install-githooks.sh

When you commit changes under servers/core/ or servers/template_server/, the pre-commit hook regenerates and stages the swagger docs. Ensure swag is available on your PATH:

go install github.com/swaggo/swag/cmd/swag@latest

Ports Reference

Service	Port
Core Client	3000
Keycloak	8081
Core Server	8080
PostgreSQL	5432

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💬 Community & Support

We are building a community around PROMPT! Whether you are an instructor using the platform or a developer looking to contribute, we'd love to have you.

• Discord: Join our Discord Server for real-time discussion and support.
• GitHub Issues: Report bugs or request features on our Issue Tracker.
• Documentation: Visit our Documentation Portal for detailed guides.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions of all kinds! Please see our Contributing Guidelines to get started.

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Configuration

PROMPT can be customized for your course by composing it from different modular phases. These configurations are handled at the course level and dynamically loaded on demand.