# Inside of Keycloak

Testing your theme in Storybook is helpful, but eventually, you'll need to test it in a real Keycloak instance before deploying it to production.

## Prerequisites

1. **Install Docker**: Ensure [Docker Desktop](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/) (or just Docker) is installed and running on your computer.
2. **Install Maven**: Maven is required to build `.jar` files locally. Check if it's already installed by running: `mvn --version`

   If not, follow the instructions below to install Maven.

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="MacOS" %}
Using [Homebrew](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/maven):

```bash
brew install maven
```

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Windows" %}
On Windows, use the [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/) package manager:

```bash
choco install openjdk
choco install maven
```

Or follow the [manual installation guide](https://chocolatey.org/).
{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Ubuntu/Debian" %}

```bash
sudo apt-get install maven
```

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Fedora" %}

```bash
sudo dnf install maven
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

## Running Keycloak in Docker

Once the prerequisites are set up, you're ready to start Keycloak. Run the following command in your Keycloakify project:

```bash
npx keycloakify start-keycloak
```

You will be prompted to select the Keycloak version to spin up:

<figure><img src="/files/XlRBM9r7XlozjgexG8Ds" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Keycloakify will launch the selected Keycloak version in a Docker container.

Once the container is running, you’ll see two links:

<figure><img src="/files/sWeajbUJcIkcj8NolWGj" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

1. **Keycloak Admin Console**: <http://localhost:8080>\
   The Keycloak instance is preconfigured with your theme, a custom realm named `myrealm`, and a test user (`testuser/password123`) for quick testing.\
   Changes to the configuration are saved in the `.keycloakify` directory so that they persist across restarts.
2. **Test Web App**: <https://my-theme.keycloakify.dev>\
   This app redirects to your login theme. Edits to your theme are auto-rebuilt and updated in the Keycloak container. Simply refresh the page to see changes live.

<figure><img src="/files/e0lxrN9y9y0CkJ0n4SuJ" alt=""><figcaption><p>Accessing the test web app and signing in with testuser/password123</p></figcaption></figure>

<details>

<summary>Inspecting `window.kcContext`</summary>

You can open your browser’s developer tools to inspect the `kcContext` object on the page. This allows you to create new stories for pages with specific configurations.

<img src="/files/XDjM3GXRzNcCuowkEgSU" alt="" data-size="original">

</details>

Logging in with the test user redirects you to a page where you can inspect the decoded ID token (JWT) and access your custom [Account](/theme-types/account-theme.md) and [Admin](/theme-types/admin-theme.md) themes (if you implement them).

<figure><img src="/files/o8rB39c5bjPgDR7EEx5s" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

## More Options

Want to use a custom Keycloak image? Load some extentions? Import a realm configuration?\
No problem! The start-keycloak command support many options!

{% content-ref url="/pages/qwUyoyymvbrvlGzNnmi3" %}
[startKeycloakOptions](/features/compiler-options/startkeycloakoptions.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}


---

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