Getting Started

Which Path Is Right for You?#

Try It Now (Recommended for Most People)#

Browse 4000+ Aalto courses
Apply intelligent filters
Bookmark favorite courses
Create Plans and explore semester-level planning options

Sisukas runs entirely in the browser with no installation required. Course data is cached locally for instant searching and filtering, making the app usable even with limited connectivity.

This is the easiest way to experience the full system with no setup required.

Run Locally (For Development or Self-Hosting)#

Set up a local development environment if you want to:

Contribute to the codebase
Self-host the application
Work on discovery, filtering, or planning features
Understand the system architecture

Local development is fully supported, but requires a few services to run together.

Local authentication requires HTTPS. The setup uses locally trusted certificates generated with mkcert. Without HTTPS, sign-in will not work.

See Running Sisukas Locally for details.

That page covers:

required tools
one-time setup
which services need to run
how authentication works on localhost

What You Can Do Without Any Setup#

Even without signing in or running backend services, Sisukas supports:

✓ Browsing and searching courses
✓ Applying complex filters
✓ Inspecting course metadata and basic schedules
✓ Saving and sharing filter configurations (when Filters API is running)

This makes frontend-only development and exploration easy.

What Requires Authentication#

Authenticated features include:

bookmarking courses
creating and persisting Plans
schedule evaluation and decision slots

These features work:

on sisukas.eu, or
locally with HTTPS and backend services running

Course Data#

Course data is fetched from the Aalto University API and updated daily. The frontend loads the latest courses.json automatically when the dev server starts.

For details on how course data is fetched, cached, and updated, see the Data Pipeline guide.

Browser Support#

Sisukas works best on modern browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Brave. It is fully responsive and usable on mobile devices.

courses.json cannot be accessed via file:// URLs due to browser security restrictions. Always use the dev server when running locally.

Where to Go Next#

Want to understand the system?
Read System Overview and Concepts Overview
Want to run or modify the code?
Start with Running Sisukas Locally
Looking for implementation details?
Continue to the Developer Guide

Sisukas is designed to support deliberate exploration first and commitment later.
The documentation follows the same principle.