Conclave — Private Collaboration Platform

A private, invite-only messaging & collaboration platform for the team — instant messaging, rooms, media sharing, plus a memory layer competitors don't have: Decisions, Action Items, and Catch-up Digests that survive the scroll.

Full product/architecture context: docs/PKB_Project_Architecture_Brief.docx.

Stack

• Backend: Node.js + Express
• Real-time: Socket.IO
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Cache / presence / pub-sub: Redis
• Media storage: Cloudinary
• Auth: JWT (access + refresh token)
• Frontend: React + Tailwind (Vite)

Getting Started (local dev)

1. Copy env files:

   cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
   cp client/.env.example client/.env

   Fill in your Cloudinary credentials and JWT secrets in backend/.env.

2. Start Postgres + Redis:

   docker compose up -d

3. Run migrations:

   cd backend
   npm install
   npm run migrate

4. Start the backend:

   npm run dev

   Runs on http://localhost:5000 by default.

5. Start the client (new terminal):

   cd client
   npm install
   npm run dev

   Runs on http://localhost:5173 by default.

Repo Structure

backend/     Express API + Socket.IO server
client/      React + Tailwind frontend (Vite)
docs/        PKB, API contracts, decision log
docker-compose.yml   Postgres + Redis for local dev

Where to start

• Auth flow (register/login/refresh) is already wired up in backend/src/controllers/auth.controller.js — use it as the pattern for everything else.
• Every other route (rooms, messages, decisions, tasks, digest, notifications, upload) is scaffolded with TODOs in its controller — that's the starting point for each person's assigned area. See docs/PKB_Project_Architecture_Brief.docx §8 for who owns what.
• Socket event names and payloads are documented in backend/src/sockets/index.js.
• Database schema lives in backend/database/migrations/ as plain SQL — run in order.