Skill Swap Board

A peer-to-peer skill exchange platform where colleagues propose, negotiate, and agree on skill-for-skill teaching swaps.

Overview

Users offer a skill they can teach in exchange for a skill they want to learn. Proposals flow through a structured negotiation lifecycle — pending, countered, agreed, or declined — before both parties commit to a mutual exchange.

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	Next.js 16 (App Router, Server Actions, RSC)
Language	TypeScript 5
Auth	NextAuth v5 (credentials — email + bcrypt)
Database	PostgreSQL via Prisma 7 + @prisma/adapter-pg
Styling	Tailwind CSS 4 (Studio Dark theme)
Testing	Vitest 4 (unit + integration)

Project Structure

app/
  auth/signin/          # Sign-in page
  auth/signup/          # Registration page
  dashboard/            # Authenticated home — proposals & swaps
  profile/me/           # Edit your own skills
  profile/[userId]/     # View another user + send proposal
  api/auth/             # NextAuth route handler

actions/
  auth.ts               # createUser, signInUser, signOutUser
  profile.ts            # updateProfile
  proposals.ts          # createProposal, respondToProposal, acceptCounter, cancelSwap

lib/
  prisma.ts             # PrismaClient singleton (PrismaPg adapter)
  auth-helpers.ts       # getAuthenticatedUserId — shared auth guard
  guards.ts             # Pure authorization predicates (canAccept, canCounter, etc.)
  enums.ts              # ProposalStatus enum (client-safe, mirrors Prisma)

components/
  ProposeForm.tsx        # Skill-swap proposal form
  ProposalCard.tsx       # Incoming proposal with accept/decline/counter actions
  SwapCard.tsx           # Agreed swap with cancel action
  ProfileCard.tsx        # Read-only skill display
  TagEditor.tsx          # Add/remove free-text skill tags
  AppHeader.tsx          # Shared navigation header

prisma/
  schema.prisma          # User + Proposal models, ProposalStatus enum

tests/
  unit/guards.test.ts           # 24 pure-function unit tests (no DB)
  integration/proposals.test.ts # 8 integration tests against real Postgres
  integration/helpers.ts        # createTestPrisma, createUser, createProposal
  integration/setup.ts          # Global setup — prisma db push to test DB

Proposal Lifecycle

[Alice] createProposal → PENDING
                           │
          ┌────────────────┼────────────────┐
        accept           counter          decline
          │                │                │
        AGREED          COUNTERED        DECLINED
                           │
              ┌────────────┴──────────┐
           accept counter          decline
                │
              AGREED
                │
             cancel
                │
           CANCELLED

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• PostgreSQL database (local or Supabase / Neon)

Setup

# 1. Install dependencies
npm install

# 2. Configure environment
cp .env.example .env.local
# Fill in DATABASE_URL, AUTH_SECRET, NEXTAUTH_SECRET, AUTH_URL

# 3. Push schema to database
npx prisma db push

# 4. Start development server
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection string
AUTH_SECRET	NextAuth v5 secret (generate: openssl rand -base64 32)
NEXTAUTH_SECRET	NextAuth v4 fallback secret (same value as AUTH_SECRET)
AUTH_URL	App base URL (e.g. http://localhost:3000)
NEXTAUTH_URL	App base URL (same as AUTH_URL)

Testing

Unit tests (no database required)

npm run test

Tests pure guard functions in lib/guards.ts — 24 tests, runs in ~300ms.

Integration tests (requires a test database)

# 1. Create a separate test database
# 2. Add TEST_DATABASE_URL to .env.test
echo 'TEST_DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/skillswap_test' > .env.test

# 3. Run integration tests
npm run test:integration

The global setup automatically runs prisma db push --force-reset against the test DB before each run.

Coverage

npm run test:coverage

Key Routes

Route	Description
GET /	Landing page
GET /auth/signup	Register a new account
GET /auth/signin	Sign in
GET /dashboard	Your proposals and agreed swaps
GET /profile/me	Edit your canTeach / wantToLearn skills
GET /profile/:userId	View a user's profile and send a proposal

Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start development server
npm run build	Production build
npm run start	Start production server
npm run lint	Run ESLint
npm run test	Run unit tests
npm run test:watch	Unit tests in watch mode
npm run test:integration	Run integration tests
npm run test:coverage	Unit test coverage report

Deployment

The app deploys to Vercel. Set the environment variables listed above in the Vercel project settings. The DATABASE_URL should point to a production Postgres instance (Supabase or Neon recommended).

# Verify production build locally before deploying
npm run build