Quickstart.md

Please follow these steps to run this on your machine propoerly

1. Prerequisites

1. Download and install posgreSQL
2. Download and install Docker
3. Get your gmail app password

2. Environment Variables

cp env_example.txt .env

Fill in all values:

Variable	Description	Default
DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection string	—
ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET	JWT signing secret for access tokens	—
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRY	Access token lifetime in milliseconds	900000 (15 min)
REFRESH_TOKEN_SECRET	JWT signing secret for refresh tokens	—
REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRY	Refresh token lifetime in milliseconds	604800000 (7 days)
RESET_TOKEN_SECRET	JWT signing secret for password reset tokens	—
RESET_TOKEN_EXPIRY	Reset token lifetime in milliseconds	1800000 (30 min)
VERIFICATION_TOKEN_SECRET	JWT signing secret for email verification tokens	—
VERIFICATION_TOKEN_EXPIRY	Verification token lifetime in milliseconds	172800000 (2 days)
MAIL_HOST	SMTP host	smtp.gmail.com
MAIL_PORT	SMTP port	587
MAIL_USER	SMTP username / sender address	—
MAIL_PASS	SMTP password or app password	—
REDIS_HOST	Redis host	127.0.0.1
REDIS_PORT	Redis port	6379
FRONTEND_URL	Frontend base URL (used in email links)	—

All four JWT secrets must be set or the server will throw on startup. Use long, random strings (32+ characters each).

3. Redis

# First time — downloads the image and starts the container
docker run -d --name redis-server -p 6379:6379 redis

# Subsequent starts
docker start redis-server

4. Database

# Apply migrations
npx prisma migrate deploy

# Reset during development
npx prisma migrate reset

# Open Prisma Studio (GUI)
npx prisma studio

5. Run

# Development (TypeScript watch + nodemon)
npm run dev

# Production
npm run build
npm start

Server starts on PORT (default 5000).