Thanks for taking the time to contribute to 3x-ui. This guide gets a development panel running on your machine in a few minutes.
go.mod)github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3). Linux/macOS already ship one; on Windows see below.go build on Windows will fail with cgo: C compiler "gcc" not found until you install a GCC toolchain. Two options — pick whichever fits.
Option A — standalone zip (fastest, no package manager)
Grab the latest build from https://github.com/niXman/mingw-builds-binaries/releases. For most setups you want a release named like:
x86_64-<version>-release-posix-seh-ucrt-rt_<n>-rev<m>.7z
(64-bit, POSIX threads, SEH exceptions, UCRT runtime — matches the modern Windows defaults.)
Extract it somewhere stable, e.g. C:\mingw64\.
Add C:\mingw64\bin to your Windows PATH (System Properties → Environment Variables → Path → New).
Open a fresh terminal and confirm:
gcc --version
Option B — MSYS2 (if you also want a Unix-y shell)
Open the MSYS2 UCRT64 shell from the Start menu and update once:
pacman -Syu
Install the UCRT64 toolchain:
pacman -S --needed mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-pkg-config
Add C:\msys64\ucrt64\bin to your Windows PATH.
Verify with gcc --version in a fresh terminal.
After either, go build ./... and go run . work normally.
Why MinGW-w64 over MSVC:
mattn/go-sqlite3officially supports GCC, builds are faster on Windows, and the toolchain doesn't lock you into a Visual Studio install. If you already have Visual Studio Build Tools installed it works too — just make sureCC=clis not set in your environment.
The Linux SQLite cross-build from Windows (or vice versa) needs an extra cross-compiler — out of scope here; build natively on the target OS.
git clone https://github.com/MHSanaei/3x-ui.git
cd 3x-ui
cp .env.example .env
mkdir x-ui
go mod download
cd frontend
npm install
npm run build
cd ..
.env.example ships with sane defaults that point the database, logs, and xray binary at the local x-ui/ folder so nothing escapes the project directory:
XUI_DEBUG=true
XUI_DB_FOLDER=x-ui
XUI_LOG_FOLDER=x-ui
XUI_BIN_FOLDER=x-ui
You need to drop the xray binary (xray-windows-amd64.exe on Windows, xray-linux-amd64 on Linux, etc.) plus the matching geoip.dat / geosite.dat files into x-ui/. The easiest source is a released Xray-core build. On Windows you also want wintun.dll if you plan to test TUN inbounds.
go run .
Open http://localhost:2053 and log in with admin / admin. You will be prompted to change the credentials on first login.
The repo ships a launch profile in .vscode/launch.json (gitignored — copy from the snippet below if it is missing):
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "Run 3x-ui (Debug)",
"type": "go",
"request": "launch",
"mode": "auto",
"program": "${workspaceFolder}",
"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
"env": {
"XUI_DEBUG": "true",
"XUI_DB_FOLDER": "x-ui",
"XUI_LOG_FOLDER": "x-ui",
"XUI_BIN_FOLDER": "x-ui"
},
"console": "integratedTerminal"
}
]
}
The panel UI is a Vue 3 + Ant Design Vue 4 app under frontend/. A few things worth knowing before you dive in.
It's a multi-page app, not a SPA. Every panel route (/panel, /panel/inbounds, /panel/clients, /panel/xray, /panel/settings, /panel/sub, /panel/api-docs, plus login) has its own HTML entry under frontend/*.html and its own bootstrap in src/entries/<page>.js. Vite builds them into web/dist/, and the Go binary embeds that directory at compile time with embed.FS. Each navigation triggers a real document load — but each page's bundle is small, so it stays snappy. There's no Vue Router and no central store; Vuex/Pinia were rejected as overkill for the panel's surface area.
src/composables/ carry reactive logic worth sharing inside a page (theme switching, status polling, node lists). Reach for one before adding a new global.src/models/ (Inbound, DBInbound, Outbound, Status, …) own the protocol-specific logic — link generation, settings JSON shape, TLS/Reality stream handling. The Vue components stay dumb; they ask the model "what's my link?" and render the answer.src/utils/index.js's HttpUtil, which is a thin Axios wrapper with CSRF, response toast handling, and a silent: true opt-out for bulk operations that would otherwise spam toasts.Locale strings live in web/translation/<locale>.json, not under frontend/. The Go side embeds the same JSON and serves it to both backend templates and vue-i18n. When you add a new English key, add it to every non-English locale too — missing keys don't fail the build, they just render the raw key in the UI.
| When you want… | Use |
|---|---|
| To iterate on UI tweaks fast | cd frontend && npm run dev (Vite on :5173, proxies /panel/* and /api/* to the Go panel on :2053). Start the Go panel first. |
| To test what users actually see | cd frontend && npm run build, then go run .. The Go binary serves the built bundle either embedded (release mode) or from disk (debug mode). |
The Vite dev proxy auto-rewrites the sidebar's production-style links (/panel, /panel/inbounds, /panel/clients, etc.) to the matching Vite-served HTML, so the navigation feels identical to prod without round-tripping through Go. The route allowlist lives in MIGRATED_ROUTES in vite.config.js — if you add a new page, register it there too.
XUI_DEBUG=truegotcha — in debug mode the panel serves HTML out of the embedded FS (frozen at the lastgo build/go run) but JS/CSS off disk. Re-runningnpm run buildwithout restarting Go leaves the embedded HTML pointing at the old hashed asset names → blank page with 404s in the browser console. Always restartgo run .after a frontend rebuild.
frontend/<page>.html (copy an existing one and adjust the title + the imported entry).src/entries/<page>.js — createApp(Page).use(antd).use(i18n).mount('#app').src/pages/<page>/<Page>.vue (kebab-case folder, PascalCase component).rollupOptions.input inside vite.config.js./panel/<route>, add <route> to MIGRATED_ROUTES so dev-mode navigation works.serveDistPage(c, "<page>.html") to serve the embedded HTML in prod.<script setup>) everywhere. Options API survives only in components nobody has touched yet.// line comments in committed JS/Vue. HTML <!-- ... --> is fine for template structure. Identifiers should carry the meaning; if you need a comment to explain what code does, rename the variable. Comments are for the why and only when surprising.ConfigProvider + dir="rtl". When you write Persian text in toasts or labels, keep prose clean — isolate code/identifiers on their own lines so the RTL reading flows.InboundsPage.vue → checkFallback()) and the clients page (/panel/api/clients/subLinks/:subId → backend GetSubs). Exercise both whenever you touch URL generation, fallback projection, or TLS handling.frontend/
├── *.html — Vite entry HTML, one per panel route
├── eslint.config.js — ESLint 10 flat config (vue3-recommended)
├── vite.config.js
└── src/
├── entries/ — per-page bootstrap (createApp + mount)
├── pages/ — one folder per route (index, login, inbounds, clients, xray, settings, sub, api-docs)
├── components/ — cross-page Vue components (DateTimePicker, FinalMaskForm, …)
├── composables/ — reusable reactive logic (useTheme, useStatus, useNodeList, …)
├── api/ — Axios setup + CSRF interceptor + WebSocket client
├── i18n/ — vue-i18n bootstrap (the JSON lives in web/translation/)
├── models/ — Inbound, DBInbound, Outbound, Status, reality-targets, …
└── utils/ — HttpUtil, ObjectUtil, LanguageManager, RandomUtil, SizeFormatter, …
Lint with cd frontend && npm run lint. The deeper reference is frontend/README.md.
| Path | What lives there |
|---|---|
main.go |
Process entry point, CLI subcommands, signal handling |
web/ |
Gin HTTP server, controllers, services, embedded frontend |
frontend/ |
Vue 3 + Ant Design source for the panel UI |
database/ |
GORM models, migrations, seeders (SQLite / PostgreSQL) |
xray/ |
Xray-core process lifecycle + gRPC API client |
sub/ |
Subscription endpoints (raw, JSON, Clash) |
config/ |
Environment-var helpers, paths, defaults |
x-ui/ |
Runtime data — db, logs, xray binary, geo files (gitignored) |
main (e.g. feat/short-description).go build ./...go test ./... (if you touched Go code)cd frontend && npm run build (if you touched the Vue side)git log — <area>: short imperative summary, then a body explaining the why.main with a brief description of what changed and how to test it.| Variable | Default | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
XUI_DEBUG |
false |
Verbose logs + Gin debug mode + serve /assets from disk |
XUI_LOG_LEVEL |
info |
debug / info / notice / warning / error |
XUI_DB_FOLDER |
platform default | Where x-ui.db lives |
XUI_LOG_FOLDER |
platform default | Where 3xui.log lives |
XUI_BIN_FOLDER |
bin |
Where the xray binary + geo files + xray config.json live |
XUI_DB_TYPE |
sqlite |
Set to postgres to use PostgreSQL via XUI_DB_DSN |
XUI_DB_DSN |
— | PostgreSQL DSN when XUI_DB_TYPE=postgres |
Before filing a bug, please include your OS, Go version, panel version (/panel/api/server/status or the dashboard footer), and the relevant excerpt from x-ui/3xui.log.