Smart Recipe Generator

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Run Locally (Developer Environment)

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Python 3.8+ and pip
• Node.js (v16 or newer) and npm
• A MongoDB Atlas cluster (or Mongo URI)
• An OpenAI API key
• A Firebase project with Email/Password Authentication enabled

Environment Variables

This project uses two .env files:

client/.env

Used by Vite to inject environment variables into the frontend at build time. Must contain only variables prefixed with VITE_.

Reference: client/.env.example

server/.env

Used by the FastAPI backend, loaded via python-dotenv and load_dotenv() in gptClient.py. Instructions on what firebase files needed for user authentication

Reference: server/.env.example

Run the app using the startup script:

./startup.sh

This will:

• Install frontend dependencies with npm install
• Install backend dependencies using requirements.txt
• Start both the Vite frontend and FastAPI backend servers

Access the app at:

• Frontend: http://localhost:5173
• Backend(API) Docs: http://localhost:8080/docs

Stop the app using the shutdown scrip:

./shutdown.sh