If the project requires me to locally install a database, configure ports, or anything of the like, that's a shining red flag that things are very wrong Backen

If the project requires me to locally install a database, configure ports, or anything of the like, that's a shining red flag that things are very wrong Backend project? you need to provide a docker-compose setup. Not just for the database, also for any other service like Redis, ElasticSearch, etc. If you're expecting PRs, you'll also need a good database unit test suit, preferably running something like Sqlite. Frontend? ideally you'll provide the API setup like before, but I'll settle for a dev env online.