🚀 LinkNest - Your Personal Content Library

LinkNest is a second-brain web app that helps you save, organize, and revisit content from your favorite platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Medium, LinkedIn, Dev.to, and more.

🌟 Features

• 🎯 Save content from multiple platforms
• 🔍 Filter by platform (YouTube, Twitter, Medium, etc.)
• 🧠 Search by title instantly
• 📌 Pin content (coming soon!)
• ✏️ Edit titles of saved content (coming soon!)
• 🗂 Organize your knowledge in a beautiful card layout
• 🌗 Fully responsive with dark mode
• 🛡️ JWT Auth & secure backend
• ⚡ Smooth user experience with React + Tailwind + Vite

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📸 Preview

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend	Backend	Styling	Other
React (Vite)	Node.js (Express)	Tailwind CSS	MongoDB
TypeScript	JWT Auth	ShadCN UI	Render (Backend hosting)
React Router	Axios	Dark Mode	Vercel (Frontend hosting)

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🔧 Installation & Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or higher)
• MongoDB (local installation or MongoDB Atlas account)
• Git

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/ayushsoni02/LinkNest.git
cd LinkNest

2. Backend Setup

# Navigate to backend directory
cd MindVault-BE

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Set up environment variables
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env file with your actual values (see Environment Variables section below)

# Build and start the backend
npm run dev

3. Frontend Setup

# Open a new terminal and navigate to frontend directory
cd MindVault-FE

# Install dependencies
npm install

Start the frontend development server

npm run dev

### 4. Environment Variables

The backend requires several environment variables to function properly. Copy the `.env.example` file to `.env` in the `MindVault-BE` directory and update the following values:

```bash
# Database - Replace with your MongoDB connection string
MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/linknest

# JWT Secret - Use a secure random string (minimum 32 characters)
JWT_PASSWORD=your_secure_jwt_secret_here

# Application Settings
NODE_ENV=development
PORT=3000
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:5173

Quick Setup Commands:

cd MindVault-BE
cp .env.example .env

# Generate a secure JWT secret using Node.js
node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"

# Then edit .env with your preferred text editor
nano .env  # or code .env for VS Code

5. Database Setup

Option A: Local MongoDB

1. Install MongoDB locally
2. Start MongoDB service
3. Use connection string: mongodb://localhost:27017/linknest

Option B: MongoDB Atlas (Recommended)

1. Create account at MongoDB Atlas
2. Create a new cluster
3. Get connection string and replace in .env

6. Access the Application

• Frontend: http://localhost:5173
• Backend API: http://localhost:3000

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🚀 Quick Start (Development)

# Terminal 1 - Backend
cd MindVault-BE
npm install
cp .env.example .env  # Don't forget to edit this!
npm run dev

# Terminal 2 - Frontend
cd MindVault-FE
npm install
npm run dev

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🔒 Security Notes

• Never commit .env files to version control
• Use a strong, unique JWT_PASSWORD (minimum 32 characters)
• Generate secure JWT secret: node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(32).toString('hex'))"
• In production, use MongoDB Atlas with proper authentication

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🛠️ Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Backend won't start:

• ✅ Check if MongoDB is running (local) or connection string is correct (Atlas)
• ✅ Verify all required environment variables are set in .env
• ✅ Make sure you copied .env.example to .env

CORS errors:

• ✅ Check FRONTEND_URL matches your frontend development server
• ✅ Default is http://localhost:5173 for Vite

JWT errors:

• ✅ Ensure JWT_PASSWORD is set and secure
• ✅ Clear browser localStorage/cookies if needed