Add dev instructions to README

README.md

@@ -3,6 +3,49 @@
 This is the frontend for [Soapbox](https://soapbox.pub).
 It is based on [Gab Social](https://code.gab.com/gab/social/gab-social)'s frontend which is in turn based on [Mastodon](https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/)'s frontend.
 
+# Running locally
+
+To get it running, just clone the repo:
+
+```
+git clone https://gitlab.com/soapbox-pub/soapbox-fe.git
+cd soapbox-fe
+```
+
+Ensure that Node.js and Yarn are installed, then install dependencies:
+
+```
+yarn
+```
+
+Finally, run the dev server:
+
+```
+yarn dev
+```
+
+It will serve at `http://localhost:3036` by default.
+
+It will proxy requests to the backend for you.
+For Pleroma no other changes are required, just start Pleroma and it should begin working.
+
+## Using with Mastodon
+
+For Mastodon you will need to edit `webpack/development.js` and change the proxy port to 3000: `const backendUrl = 'http://localhost:3000';` then restart the soapbox-fe dev server.
+
+Streaming will not work properly without extra effort.
+
+Due to Mastodon not supporting authentication through the API, you will also need to authenticate manually.
+First log in through the Mastodon interface, view the source of the page, and extract your access_token from the markup.
+Then open soapbox-fe, open the console, and insert the following code:
+
+```js
+window.localStorage.setItem('soapbox:auth:user', JSON.stringify({access_token: "XXX"}));
+```
+
+Replace `XXX` with your access token.
+Finally, refresh the page, and you should be logged in.
+
 # License
 
 soapbox-fe is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify