gerbeur/README.md

gerbeur

A small invite-only social platform for sharing links and files. Users can post URLs and media (YouTube, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, images, audio, video, …), vote, comment, follow each other, build playlists, and search content. A real-time WebSocket layer handles live presence, vote counts, and notifications. The UI is localized (English and French) and ships multiple visual themes.

Stack

Layer	Technology
Runtime	Deno 2.x
API	Oak (HTTP + WebSocket)
Database	SQLite via node:sqlite
Frontend	React 19 + Vite 8

Development

Prerequisites

• Deno 2.x

Setup

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env: set GERBEUR_JWT_SECRET to the output of: openssl rand -hex 32

Run

deno task dev

This starts both the API server (port 8000, with file watching) and the Vite dev server (port 3000) concurrently.

Open http://localhost:3000. On first run a default admin / admin account is created — change the password immediately.

Environment variables

See .env.example for the full list with descriptions. Key variables:

Variable	Description	Default
GERBEUR_JWT_SECRET	JWT signing secret — required, generate with openssl rand -hex 32	—
GERBEUR_PUBLIC_URL	Public-facing URL of the server (no trailing slash) — used for CORS, WebSocket origin, email links, OG URLs	http://localhost:GERBEUR_PORT
GERBEUR_PORT	Internal port Oak listens on	8000
GERBEUR_LISTEN_HOST	Network interface Oak binds to; use 127.0.0.1 to restrict to loopback	0.0.0.0
GERBEUR_FRONTEND_URL	Frontend base URL for email links and CORS; auto-added to allowed origins — the only variable needed when the frontend runs on a separate host	GERBEUR_PUBLIC_URL
GERBEUR_ALLOWED_ORIGINS	Comma-separated extra origins for CORS/WebSocket; PUBLIC_URL and FRONTEND_URL are always included — typically only needed in dev for the Vite server	"" (empty)
GERBEUR_SITE_NAME	Site name used in the browser tab, app header, OG meta tags, and emails	gerbeur
GERBEUR_SMTPS_URL	SMTPS connection URL for outgoing email (smtps://user:pass@host:465)	unset
GERBEUR_FROM_EMAIL	Sender address for outgoing emails — required when GERBEUR_SMTPS_URL is set	unset
GERBEUR_WELCOME_EMAIL_BODY	Markdown body for the account-creation welcome email; supports {{username}} and {{site_name}}	built-in template
VITE_API_PROTOCOL	API protocol baked into the frontend bundle (see Production)	http
VITE_API_HOSTNAME	API hostname baked into the frontend bundle	localhost
VITE_API_PORT	API port baked into the frontend bundle	8000

Production

Docker (recommended)

The standard deployment runs API and frontend in a single container. The API server (Oak) serves the compiled frontend as static files, so both share the same origin — no VITE_API_* build args needed. Set GERBEUR_PUBLIC_URL to the externally-visible URL; it is automatically allowed for HTTP/WebSocket requests.

docker build -t gerbeur .

docker build -t gerbeur .

docker run -d \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v gerbeur-db:/app/api/sql \
  -v gerbeur-uploads:/app/api/uploads \
  -e GERBEUR_JWT_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32) \
  -e GERBEUR_PUBLIC_URL=https://example.com \
  -e GERBEUR_SITE_NAME=mysite \
  --name gerbeur \
  gerbeur

The two volumes are required for persistence:

• gerbeur-db — SQLite database (api/sql/gerbeur.db), initialized automatically on first run
• gerbeur-uploads — user-uploaded files (api/uploads/)

Separate API and frontend (optional)

If you need to run the API on a different host than the frontend, pass the API location as build args so it gets baked into the frontend bundle. In that setup, add the frontend origin to GERBEUR_ALLOWED_ORIGINS so cross-origin HTTP/WebSocket requests are accepted:

docker build \
  --build-arg VITE_API_PROTOCOL=https \
  --build-arg VITE_API_HOSTNAME=api.example.com \
  --build-arg VITE_API_PORT=443 \
  -t gerbeur .

Reverse proxy

Put a reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, …) in front of the container to handle TLS. Forward everything to port 8000. Example Caddyfile:

example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8000
}

Project structure

shared/            # Imported by both halves: API and socket types, limits, permissions
  test/            # Tests of shared/ (Deno): test/<module>.test.ts
api/
  main.ts          # Entry point — Oak application, middleware, routes
  config.ts        # Environment variables
  middleware/      # Oak middleware: errors, auth, OG tags
  routes/          # One router per URL prefix: HTTP + WebSocket, no SQL
  services/        # Business logic and every SQL query
  remote/          # Everything that fetches from other sites
    providers/     # Link metadata providers (YouTube, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, …)
  model/           # Per table: row type, row guard, row ↔ API mappers
  validators/      # Per domain: request body guards
  lib/             # Helpers with no SQL and no outbound fetch: JWT, slugs, files, …
  db/
    connection.ts  # The database handle and transaction()
    startup.ts     # Housekeeping run when the database opens
    schema.sql     # Database schema
    init.ts        # First-run database initialisation
    migrate.ts     # Migration runner
    migrations/    # Versioned schema migrations
  test/            # Backend tests (Deno): test/<layer>/<module>.test.ts
  sql/
    gerbeur.db     # SQLite database (not committed)
  uploads/         # User-uploaded files — avatars, dumps, thumbnails, … (not committed)
src/               # React frontend (Vite)
  config/          # API base URL, feed tabs, player mode
  pages/           # One component per route, nothing else
  components/      # React components only (.tsx)
  contexts/        # FooContext.ts + FooProvider.tsx pairs
  hooks/           # Every hook (useFoo.ts)
  utils/           # Every non-React module: pure helpers, storage, API glue
  test/            # Frontend tests (Vitest): test/<layer>/<domain>/<Module>.test.tsx
  locales/         # Lingui message catalogues (en, fr)
  themes/          # Per-theme CSS files
  i18n.ts          # Lingui runtime setup
public/            # Static assets (favicon, manifest, service worker)

Whatever crosses the wire is defined once, in shared/: the API envelope (shared/api.ts), each domain's types and request bodies (shared/dump.ts, shared/user.ts, …), the socket protocol (shared/ws.ts), the validation limits and the role permissions. The server sends Dates; the client reads Wire<T>, the same type with every Date an ISO string, and turns it back with src/utils/shared/deserialize.ts. shared/ imports nothing from either half.

The backend is split by layer, one kind of module per folder, and each file is named after its domain: the dumps are routes/dumps.ts, services/dump-service.ts, model/dump.ts and validators/dump.ts. Routes parse and answer, services hold the logic and the SQL, remote/ is the only place that fetches from other sites. Tests mirror the source one file per module, so the tests of services/chat-service.ts are in test/services/chat-service.test.ts.

All three parts — api/, shared/ and src/ — are documented for deno doc, the same way in every file. Each module opens with a /** … @module */ block saying what it is for. Every export has a JSDoc comment, and so does every field of an exported interface; a comment that describes a declaration is always /** */, and // is only for notes on the code inside. Functions open with a verb ("Returns…", "Checks…", "Renders…" for a component), everything else with a noun phrase. Parameters are named in the prose, in backticks. {@link} points at symbols the file already has in scope. A function that can throw to its caller says so with @throws: for an APIException, the statuses and when. A router's module doc lists its endpoints, one line each: method and path, who may call it, what it does; a page's JSDoc names its route and who may see it. The first paragraph of a doc is its summary, which the reference shows alone in lists, so it is a sentence that stands on its own: it never ends in a colon introducing what follows.

In the frontend, every exported function states its return type, so the reference can show it: a component returns React.JSX.Element (or | null), a hook returning several things returns a documented Use<Name>Result interface. A component that takes props takes an exported <Name>Props interface, each prop documented. React's types are used through the global React namespace rather than a default import of react, which deno doc can't follow.

deno task doc builds the HTML reference into docs/ from every module of api/, shared/ and src/ but the tests (and the generated src/locales/). Its index page is the module doc of mod.ts at the root, which introduces the repository's three parts and their layers in prose; deno doc builds the list of every module itself, grouped by path. The docs workflow publishes it on every push to main that touches them. deno task doc:lint checks the rules the linter can see, and that no summary ends in a colon, through doc-lint.ts. deno doc doesn't document npm packages, so it takes a type imported from one (react-hook-form's FieldValues, say) for a private one, and those references alone are let through.

Each of the frontend's components/, contexts/, hooks/ and utils/ is split into the same domain folders — auth, category, chat, comment, dump, editor, feed, form, layout, player, playlist, profile, social, theme, ws — plus shared/ for what belongs to no single domain. So the chat lives in components/chat/, contexts/chat/, hooks/chat/ and utils/chat/, and its tests in test/<same path>. Files are imported directly (no index.ts barrels), and everything uses named exports.