Task Manager with Categories

A simple task manager built with Node.js, Express, and the MongoDB Node driver. No Mongoose, no frontend framework, just a clean API and a lightweight vanilla JS UI.

What it does

• Basic CRUD API for tasks
• Tasks have categories: Work, Personal, Study, Other
• Filter tasks by category
• Simple frontend served from the same app
• Input validation and basic security (helmet, size limits)
• Indexed category field for faster queries
• Graceful startup/shutdown handling
• Tests using Node's built-in test runner

Getting started

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/task-manager-with-categories.git
cd task-manager-with-categories
npm install

cp .env.example .env
# add your MongoDB connection string

npm run dev

Environment variables

• MONGO_URI (required) – your MongoDB connection string
• DB_NAME (optional) – defaults to taskmanager
• PORT (optional) – defaults to 3000

API overview

• GET /tasks – list tasks
• GET /tasks?category=Work – filter by category
• POST /tasks – create
• PUT /tasks/:id – update
• DELETE /tasks/:id – delete

Errors return:

{ "error": "message" }

Running tests

npm test

Notes

This is meant to be simple and production-ready enough to build on. If you're deploying it for real use, you'll probably want to add auth, rate limiting, and stricter security headers.