DevSync – AI Career Growth Partner

1. Project Title

DevSync – AI Career Growth Partner

2. Problem Statement

Developers often lack structured and personalized guidance to achieve their career goals. Learning resources are scattered, and tracking progress becomes tedious. DevSync solves this by acting as an AI-powered career mentor that helps developers assess their skills, generate personalized learning roadmaps, and track their growth in real time — all within a single integrated platform.

3. System Architecture

Architecture Flow: Frontend (Next.js) → Backend (Node.js + Express API) → Database (MongoDB)

Frontend

• Next.js (app router)
• Tailwind CSS for styling
• Framer Motion for UI animations
• Axios for HTTP requests

Backend

• Node.js + Express.js
• JWT authentication, bcrypt for password hashing
• REST API endpoints for goals, tasks, roadmaps, community, and profile

Database

• MongoDB Atlas (NoSQL)

Hosting

• Frontend: Vercel
• Backend: Render or Railway
• Database: MongoDB Atlas

4. Key Features

• Authentication & Authorization: Secure JWT login/signup, bcrypt encryption, role-based access controls
• CRUD Operations: Full create/read/update/delete for goals, tasks, roadmaps, posts, and profiles
• Personalized Roadmaps: AI-powered roadmap generation using an LLM (server-side API)
• Progress Tracking: Track goal progress, task completion, and historical milestones
• Community: Discussion posts with search, filtering, pagination and moderation
• Searching / Sorting / Filtering: Keyword search, sort by date/popularity, filter by category/status
• Pagination: Client-side pagination for goals/tasks; server-side pagination endpoints for large lists

5. Tech Stack

• Frontend: Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Framer Motion, Axios
• Backend: Node.js, Express.js
• Database: MongoDB Atlas
• Authentication: JWT, bcrypt
• AI: LLM API (configurable - Google Gemini)
• Charts: Recharts or Chart.js for progress visuals
• Hosting: Vercel (frontend), Render / Railway (backend)

6. API Overview

Below are the API routes implemented in this repository (mounted under /api). Endpoints marked Auth require a valid JWT unless otherwise noted.

Category	Endpoint	Method	Description	Access
Authentication	/api/auth/signup	POST	Register new user	Public
Authentication	/api/auth/login	POST	Authenticate user and return JWT	Public
Goals	/api/goals	GET	Get all goals for authenticated user	Authenticated
Goals	/api/goals	POST	Create a new goal	Authenticated
Goals	/api/goals/:id	PUT	Update a goal by id	Authenticated
Goals	/api/goals/:id	DELETE	Delete a goal by id	Authenticated
Tasks	/api/tasks	GET	Get all tasks for authenticated user	Authenticated
Tasks	/api/tasks	POST	Create a new task	Authenticated
Tasks	/api/tasks/:id	PUT	Update a task by id	Authenticated
Tasks	/api/tasks/:id	DELETE	Delete a task by id	Authenticated
Roadmaps	/api/roadmaps	GET	Get all saved roadmaps	Authenticated
Roadmaps	/api/roadmaps/:id	GET	Get a roadmap by id	Authenticated
Roadmaps	/api/roadmaps	POST	Create/save a roadmap	Authenticated
Roadmaps	/api/roadmaps/:id	DELETE	Delete a roadmap by id	Authenticated
Community	/api/community/posts	GET	Get community posts (supports filters/pagination)	Authenticated
Community	/api/community/posts	POST	Create a new post	Authenticated
Community	/api/community/posts/:id/like	POST	Like/unlike a post	Authenticated
Community	/api/community/posts/:id/comment	POST	Add a comment to a post	Authenticated
Community	/api/community/leaderboard	GET	Get community leaderboard / top contributors	Authenticated
Dashboard	/api/dashboard/stats	GET	Fetch dashboard statistics for the user	Authenticated
Profile	/api/profile	GET	Get current user's profile	Authenticated
Profile	/api/profile	PUT	Update current user's profile	Authenticated

Notes:

• The README lists the routes that exist under server/routes/ and how they are mounted in server/server.js (e.g. app.use('/api/goals', goalRoutes)).
• If you'd like, I can also add example request/response bodies for each endpoint (useful for API docs), and include information about required fields and validation errors.

7. How to run locally

Prerequisites: Node.js, npm, MongoDB connection (MongoDB Atlas recommended)

1. Install dependencies

# server
cd server
npm install

# client
cd ../client
npm install

2. Create a .env in server/ with:

PORT=5000
DATABASE_URL=<your-mongo-connection-string>
JWT_SECRET=<your_jwt_secret>
GEMINI_API_KEY=...
OPENAI_API_KEY=... (optional)

3. Run the backend and frontend

# from repo root
cd server
npm run dev

# in another terminal
cd client
npm run dev

8. Contribution & Notes

• The repo uses the Next.js app router for client pages and a Node/Express backend in server/.
• Keep secrets out of source control; use environment variables for API keys and DB connection strings.
• AI integrations are configurable — switch between providers in server/services/.

If you'd like, I can also:

• Add this README to the client/ README or merge contents.
• Generate a condensed README.md for the server folder with server-specific endpoints and run instructions.