YChat

Chat application built as a school project, focusing on real-time communication and basic client–server interaction.

• Project scope
• Prerequisites
• Dependencies
• Installation
• Run
• Configuration
• License

Project scope

This project was created for educational purposes only and contains intentional architectural and implementation simplifications.
Certain patterns and decisions are not production-ready and are used solely to keep the scope appropriate for a school project.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+ (Download)
• Container runtime (Docker (recommended), Colima, ...)
• IDE (VS Code, WebStorm, ...)
• Package manager (pnpm (recommended), npm, ...)

Dependencies

• Database (started automatically via docker compose during installation)
  • Postgres

Installation

1. Go to the project root: cd ychat/
2. Install all dependencies: pnpm install
3. Copy .env.example to .env in the project root (Docker infrastructure) and in all applications (apps/*), then adjust the values accordingly.
4. Start required services: docker compose up -d
5. First run only: Apply database migrations, generate Prisma client, and seed the database: docker compose exec ychat-api npx prisma migrate deploy && docker compose exec ychat-api npx prisma db seed
6. Start the application: pnpm run dev --filter app
7. Log in using the credentials (defined in the seed script; the password is stored in environment variables):
   • Username: john_doe | jane_doe | alice_smith
   • Password: <PRISMA_SEED_EXAMPLE_PASSWORD from .env file>

Note: The desktop Electron application runs locally and connects to backend services running in Docker.

Run

• Development: docker compose up -d ychat-pg && pnpm run dev

Configuration

Application

Description	Values
Ports:	5173
Technologies:	Electron-Vite
URL:	http://localhost:5173/

Web

Description	Values
Ports:	3000
Technologies:	Next.js
URL:	http://localhost:3000/

Server

Description	Values
Ports:	4000
Technologies:	NestJS, Prisma
URL:	http://localhost:4000/
Swagger:	http://localhost:4000/swagger

Database

Description	Values
Ports:	5432
Technologies:	Postgres
Databases:	postgres
Credentials:	root:password (development only)

License

This software is developed by Petr Kašpar and is licensed under the MIT License.
For more details, please refer to the LICENSE file.