Backmind

Backmind is the API backend for the Whitemind product. It is built with NestJS, Fastify, and MongoDB and provides authentication, projects, tasks, tutorials, and user features.

Quick start

pnpm install
pnpm dev

The server starts on http://localhost:3000 by default.

Requirements

• Node.js 20+ (LTS recommended)
• pnpm
• MongoDB (Atlas or local)

Configuration

Backmind reads configuration from .env. Use the values below as a starting point and update secrets for your environment.

# Core
MONGO_URI=mongodb://user:password@host
DB_NAME=backmind-dev
NODE_ENV=development
HOST=0.0.0.0
PORT=3000

# Auth
JWT_SECRET=change_me
JWT_TOKEN_EXPIRE_IN=24h
SECRET_KEY=change_me
SALT_ROUNDS=10
MIN_PASS_LENGTH=6

# Account / limits
VERIFY_ALL_EMAILS=true
DISABLE_ACCOUNT_CREATION=false
MAX_TOKENS=5
RATE_LIMIT_DURATION=5
RATE_LIMIT_REQUESTS=1000

# Email / notifications
SENDGRID_API_KEY=SG.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
EMAIL_VERIFICATION_TOKEN_VALID_MINUTES=60

# App URLs
BACKMIND_HOSTNAME=http://localhost:3000/
WHITEMIND_HOSTNAME=http://localhost:8000/

# Files
FILES_DIRECTORY=./dataStorage
PFP_DIRECTORY=./dataStorage/pfp
MODEL_DIRECTORY=./dataStorage/model

# Logging
LOG_LEVEL=debug
DISCORD_LOGGING=true
SEND_ERR_TO_CLIENT=true

# Dev helpers
RESET_DB=
WRITE_PROJECT_JSON=false

Notes:

• SECRET_KEY is used by @fastify/secure-session and must decode to 32 bytes if provided as base64.
• JWT_SECRET and SECRET_KEY should be unique per environment.

Common scripts

pnpm dev           # Run in watch mode
pnpm build         # Build to dist/
pnpm test          # Run tests
pnpm lint          # Lint and auto-fix
pnpm dropDb        # Drop the database (see scripts/dropDb.js)
pnpm createTutorials  # Seed tutorials (requires TutorMind data)

Seeding tutorials

Tutorial data lives in the TutorMind submodule. Ensure it is available before running:

pnpm createTutorials

If the submodule is private, clone it with appropriate credentials.

Deployment

GitHub Actions workflows live in .github/workflows/ and deploy via SSH by running the scripts in scripts/.

• scripts/deployMainNestjs.sh
• scripts/deployDevNestjs.sh

These scripts install dependencies, build, and restart the server.

Tech stack

• NestJS
• Fastify
• Mongoose
• JWT auth
• SendGrid

License

UNLICENSED