NoteForge

A full-stack note-taking application built with the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js). ThinkBoard allows users to create, view, and manage notes efficiently with a modern UI.

Home Page

Features

• Create, read, update, and delete notes
• Rate limiting for API requests
• Responsive design with Tailwind CSS
• RESTful API backend
• Modern React frontend with Vite

Project Structure

NoteForge/
├── backend/      # Express.js API server
│   ├── src/
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── models/
│   ├── routes/
│   └── middleware/
├── frontend/     # React client app
│   ├── src/
│   ├── components/
│   ├── pages/
│   └── lib/
├── README.md
└── package.json

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Minimum tools and services required to run the project locally:

• Node.js (LTS) — Node 18+ recommended
• npm — used to install dependencies and run scripts
• MongoDB — either a local mongod instance or a hosted MongoDB Atlas cluster
• A Clerk account (for authentication) — you'll need a publishable key and a secret key (see "Environment variables" below)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/DeepakAC3/mern-thinkboard.git
   cd mern-thinkboard

2. Install backend dependencies:

   cd backend
   npm install

3. Install frontend dependencies:

   cd ../frontend
   npm install

Running the App (local)

1. Start the backend server:

   cd backend
   npm start

2. Start the frontend development server:

   cd frontend
   npm run dev

3. Open your browser at http://localhost:5173

Authentication (Clerk)

This project uses Clerk for authentication. Clerk is integrated on both frontend and backend:

• Frontend: @clerk/clerk-react with ClerkProvider (see frontend/src/main.jsx).
• Backend: @clerk/express middleware is applied to protect API routes (see backend/src/middleware/clerkAuth.js).

Environment variables used for Clerk:

• Backend (backend/.env):

  • CLERK_SECRET_KEY — server secret key (sk_...)
  • CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY — optional server-side copy of the publishable key (pk_...)
  • CLIENT_URL — the frontend origin (used for CORS), e.g. http://localhost:5173 or your deployed frontend URL

NoteForge

A simple MERN notes app with Clerk authentication.

Quick start

1. Install backend and frontend deps:

cd backend && npm install
cd ../frontend && npm install

2. Run locally:

# backend
cd backend && npm start

# frontend
cd ../frontend && npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173

Clerk auth (short)

• Frontend: set VITE_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY (build-time).
• Backend: set CLERK_SECRET_KEY and CLIENT_URL (for CORS).
• You must register your production domain in Clerk to use live production keys — Clerk requires a valid domain (ETLD+1) for cookies.