Sudo would only be needed if you're not using `nvm` which creates a local node installation, so no sudo is needed.

This is essentially what needs to be done:

```
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/bevry/docpad.git
cd docpad
npm install
cake compile
cake test
npm link
```

```
cd the-plugin
npm link docpad
npm install
cake compile
cake test
```

Full instructions here: http://docpad.org/docs/contribute#setup-the-docpad-core-for-development