# Building IncidentCopilot: Establishing a Local-First AI DevOps Development Foundation

> Source: <https://dev.to/richard_atodo/building-incidentcopilot-establishing-a-local-first-ai-devops-development-foundation-2330>
> Published: 2026-10-01 21:53:42+00:00

**Project:** IncidentCopilot — AI DevOps Incident Investigation

**Milestone:** 1 — Repository & Local Development Foundation

**Status:** ✅ Completed  

## 
  
  
  🎯 Why Start With the Foundation?

When building an AI-powered DevOps system, it’s tempting to jump straight into the LLM.  

For IncidentCopilot, I deliberately chose not to.  

**Evidence first. AI second. Human in the loop.** 

The AI should reason over verified evidence, not replace deterministic systems like parsing, normalization, persistence, or correlation.  

So Milestone 1 focused on:  

- Repository structure
- Local dev environment
- Backend & frontend foundations
- Config management
- Testing setup
- Docker & Compose
- Documentation & reproducibility

## 
  
  
  🖥️ Local-First Decision

IncidentCopilot is intentionally **local-first**. No reliance on:  

- AWS / Azure / GCP
- Paid APIs
- Proprietary SaaS infrastructure

Instead, the stack runs via **Docker Compose**:  

- FastAPI
- PostgreSQL
- Qdrant
- Ollama
- React

## 
  
  
  📂 Repository Structure

Backend packages were defined but left intentionally empty — establishing architectural direction without premature implementation.  

## 
  
  
  ⚙️ Backend Foundation

- 
**FastAPI** app with two endpoints:

- 
**Config management** via`pydantic-settings`
- 
**Testing** with Pytest + FastAPI’s`TestClient`
- 
**Dockerized backend** (minimal container, no DB/AI yet)

## 
  
  
  🎨 Frontend Foundation

- React + TypeScript + Vite + Tailwind CSS + Lucide icons
- Minimal shell:

*IncidentCopilot — AI DevOps Incident Investigation* 

- Cleaned unused Vite starter files
- 
**Dockerized frontend** with Node-based build image

## 
  
  
  🛠️ Real Problems & Fixes

- 
**Node.js mismatch:** upgraded from v20 → v24 for Vite
- 
**Docker Desktop:** CLI installed but engine not running — fixed by starting Docker Desktop
- 
**Windows `make`:** used` mingw32-make` instead of GNU`make`
- 
**Git hygiene:** fixed invalid UTF-8 README + refined`.gitignore`

## 
  
  
  ✅ Verification

- Git hygiene → clean
- Backend tests → 1 passed
- Frontend lint → 0 errors
- Frontend build → ✓ built
- Docker Compose config → valid
- Backend & frontend containers → running locally

## 
  
  
  🧩 What We Didn’t Build (Yet)

Milestone 1 deliberately excluded:  

- PostgreSQL models
- Log ingestion APIs
- Parsers (Nginx, Kubernetes, Docker, GitHub Actions)
- Normalization & correlation
- Qdrant + RAG integration
- Ollama integration
- Structured AI diagnosis
- Full incident dashboard

These belong to future milestones.  

## 
  
  
  🏗️ Architecture Principle

The LLM will sit **after** the deterministic evidence pipeline.  

## 
  
  
  📌 Key Takeaways

1. Foundation work = real development
2. Verification > assumptions
3. Starter templates should be questioned
4. Local-first changes dev strategy
5. AI shouldn’t be the first thing we build

## 
  
  
  🔮 What’s Next?

**Milestone 2 — FastAPI Foundation + PostgreSQL** 

Moving toward:

## 
  
  
  🏁 Final Thoughts

IncidentCopilot is still at the beginning. No AI diagnosis yet. No RAG. No ingestion pipeline.  

And that’s okay.  

Milestone 1 established the engineering environment needed to build those capabilities correctly.  

The project now has:  

- Structured monorepo
- FastAPI + React/TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
- Config management
- Testing
- Docker + Compose
- Verified local workflow

Most importantly:  

**Build the evidence pipeline first. Let AI reason over verified evidence later.** 

🔗 **GitHub:** [https://www.github.com/richardatodo/incidentcopilot](https://www.github.com/richardatodo/incidentcopilot)

➡️ **Next:** Milestone 2 — FastAPI + PostgreSQL