Commit.ly

Chat rooms scoped to your GitHub repositories.

Commit.ly (formerly GitSpace) is a Discord/Slack-style chat app where each room maps to a real GitHub repo. Teams get real-time chat plus system messages for repo activity — PRs, issues, pushes — without leaving the conversation.

Status

Actively rebuilt from scratch, service by service. Each backend service is built fully before moving to the next.

• Auth service (username/email/password)
• User service (profile, custom status, presence)
• Room service (create/join, 6-digit code + password)
• GitHub App integration / webhook service
• Chat/message service (send, edit, reply, react, pin, delete)
• Presence service (online/offline, typing indicators)

Tech stack

Layer	Tech
Frontend	Next.js
Backend	Express.js (TypeScript)
Database	PostgreSQL + Prisma ORM (v6)
Auth	bcrypt + JWT (httpOnly cookie)

Project structure

Commit.ly/
├── backend/
│   ├── prisma/
│   │   ├── schema.prisma
│   │   └── migrations/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── config/          # PrismaClient singleton, etc.
│   │   ├── modules/         # one folder per service (auth, user, room, ...)
│   │   ├── middleware/
│   │   ├── utils/
│   │   ├── app.ts
│   │   └── server.ts
│   └── .env
├── frontend/
│   └── ...                  # Next.js app
└── system-design.md         # architecture notes, flow diagrams

Getting started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 24+
• PostgreSQL running locally (or a connection string to a hosted instance)

Backend setup

cd backend
npm install

Create backend/.env:

DATABASE_URL="postgresql://<user>:<password>@localhost:5432/<database>?schema=public"
JWT_SECRET=<random-long-string>
JWT_EXPIRES_IN=7d

Run migrations:

npx prisma migrate dev

Start the server:

npm run dev

Frontend setup

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Feature roadmap

Phase 1 (MVP) — GitHub OAuth, repo-scoped rooms, real-time chat (edit/reply/react/pin/delete), presence (online/offline, typing, last seen), custom status, GitHub App integration, webhooks → system messages for PR/issue/push events

Phase 2 — Threads, code-snippet messages with syntax highlighting, GitHub link unfurling, @mentions, room activity feed

Phase 3 — Contributions/leaderboard, GitHub Actions/CI status, Commit.ly bot with slash commands, Postgres full-text search

Phase 4 — Project memory, code-level discussions, developer dashboard, VS Code extension

Phase 5 — Commit.ly AI — a project-aware assistant for PRs/issues/CI

Key design decisions

• Room access is a public 6-digit numeric code (like a Discord invite) + a hashed password gating actual entry
• Creating a room requires a GitHub-linked repo whose owner matches the authenticated user
• GitHub App integration is required for MVP repo rooms — no manual webhook setup, no polling fallback for v1
• Out of scope for v1: voice/video calls, multiple Git providers, AI features

Branching convention

Feature-per-branch, e.g. feature/auth-service, feature/room-service. No direct commits of generated code without review.

License

MIT (or update as needed)