Mark off your setup checkpoints to ensure your environment is ready to start a practice round.
Required to compile and run the backend FastAPI API server locally.
Needed to download node packages and boot the Next.js development server.
Verify that backend/.env exists and is filled out using backend/.env.example.
Make sure Whisper, TTS, and the LLM endpoint are active (on Colab or locally).
Optional cache layer to manage session state. Can be skipped gracefully.