Ai Careera

This repository contains a React frontend and an Express backend for a career counselling application.

Project structure

• frontend/ – React application
• backend/ – Node/Express API

Deployment recommendation

This project is best deployed as two separate services:

1. Backend: deploy the backend/ folder to a free Node host such as Render.
2. Frontend: deploy the frontend/ folder to Netlify.

Backend deployment (Render)

1. Push your repo to GitHub.
2. Create a free Render account and import this GitHub repo.
3. Create a new Web Service.
4. Set the repository root directory to backend.
5. Use:
   • Build command: npm install
   • Start command: npm start
6. Add environment variables in Render:
   • MONGO_URI
   • JWT_SECRET
   • GOOGLE_API_KEY (optional for AI proxy)

After deployment, copy the backend URL.

Frontend deployment (Netlify)

1. Create a free Netlify account.

2. In Netlify, add a new site from GitHub and select this repo.

3. Set the build settings as:

   • Base directory: frontend
   • Build command: npm run build
   • Publish directory: build

4. In the Netlify environment variables, add:

   • REACT_APP_API_URL = https://<YOUR_BACKEND_URL>

5. Deploy the site.

Notes

• The frontend uses process.env.REACT_APP_API_URL || '/api', so a deployed frontend can talk to your deployed backend when REACT_APP_API_URL is set.
• If you prefer Vercel, deploy the React app from frontend/ and configure the same environment variable.
• If you want to use the same domain for frontend and backend, you can also deploy both under one platform using a monorepo setup, but separating them is easiest.

What was added for deployment

• backend/Procfile – helps Render understand the backend start command.
• frontend/netlify.toml – helps Netlify build from the monorepo.

Next step

If you want, I can also help generate a vercel.json configuration for Vercel or a render.yaml file for Render import.