Feat: Add User Authentication and Authorization System (Signup/Login)

[harshitaphadtare]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Currently, the Perspective application lacks user authentication and authorization mechanisms. This means:

• Users cannot create accounts or maintain personalized sessions
• There's no way to track individual usage or enforce rate limiting per user
• Saved analyses, chat history, and preferences cannot be persisted across sessions
• The application cannot scale to a production-ready system with proper access control
• No protection exists for API endpoints against abuse or unauthorized access

Describe the solution you'd like

Implement a comprehensive authentication and authorization system with the following features:

Backend (FastAPI):

• User registration endpoint with email verification
• Secure login/logout functionality using JWT tokens
• Password hashing with bcrypt or argon2
• Token refresh mechanism for extended sessions
• Protected API routes with authentication middleware
• Rate limiting per authenticated user
• User profile management (view/update profile)

Frontend (Next.js):

• Clean signup/login forms with validation
• Secure token storage (httpOnly cookies or secure localStorage)
• Authentication state management (Context API or Zustand)
• Protected routes that redirect unauthenticated users
• User profile dashboard
• Session persistence and auto-refresh
• Logout functionality with token cleanup

Database:

• User table with fields: id, email, username, hashed_password, created_at, is_verified
• Integration with MongoDB database for user-specific data

Potential Impact

Who will benefit:

• End users - Personalized experience, saved history, secure access
• Project maintainers - Better abuse prevention, usage analytics, scalable infrastructure
• Contributors - Foundation for advanced features (sharing, collaboration, premium tiers)
• Community - Production-ready system that can be deployed publicly

Expected impact:

• Security: Prevents API abuse and unauthorized access
• Scalability: Enables per-user rate limiting and resource management
• User Experience: Persistent sessions, saved preferences, analysis history
• Monetization potential: Foundation for freemium/premium features
• Data privacy: User-specific data isolation and GDPR compliance readiness
• Analytics: Track user engagement, popular features, and system usage

@ParagGhatage i have been working on the code for this issue. once this is approved by you i shall raise the pr.

[AbhinavSenGitHub]

@harshitaphadtare @ParagGhatage

Hi 👋, I’m Abhinav — I’m familiar with both Next.js and FastAPI, and I’d like to start contributing to this issue.

My plan is to begin with the backend user registration API implementation as the first step.

Proposed plan:

Create /auth/register endpoint in FastAPI

Add email and password validation

Use bcrypt for password hashing

Store user details in the database

Return a success response with the created user ID

Once this part is reviewed and merged, I’ll move forward with:

Login endpoint

Frontend signup form integration (Next.js)

Please let me know if I can start working on this part. 🚀

[AbhinavSenGitHub]

Thanks for the update! I see the auth system has already been implemented and the PR covers the feature.
I'll pick another issue to contribute to. Please assign me next time once I comment to work on an issue 🙂🚀

[harshitaphadtare]

Hey @AbhinavSenGitHub I had already mentioned in the issue doc that I was working on it. sorry about the overlay but in my PR I’ve added a few enhancements maybe you could pick one of them and implement it?

[AbhinavSenGitHub]

Sure, I’ll start working on it. Thank you!