Code Live

Live technical interviews that reflect real engineering work.

Code Live modernises technical interviews to match how engineers actually work — with collaboration, documentation, and AI-assisted reasoning. Instead of contrived algorithm puzzles, Code Live provides a live interview environment where interviewers observe a candidate's real workflow and thinking in real time.

This monorepo contains the frontend (React / Vite / TypeScript) and backend (Express / TypeScript) for the platform.

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Prerequisites

Tool	Required	Install
Docker Desktop	✅	docs.docker.com/get-started/get-docker
Infisical CLI	✅	See local-dev.md
Fly CLI	Deploy only	curl -L https://fly.io/install.sh | sh

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Getting Started (New Team Member)

# 1. Clone the repo
git clone <repo-url> && cd CodeLive

# 2. Log in to Infisical (one-time — ask project owner for an invite)
infisical login

# 3. Start developing (Docker handles all dependencies automatically)
./scripts/dev-local.sh

No npm install, no Python setup. Docker builds everything on first run (~1–2 min), then it's instant. See local-dev.md for full setup instructions.

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Scripts

Script	Description
./scripts/dev-local.sh	Start backend (:5000) + frontend (:3000) locally via Docker
./scripts/dev.sh	Start frontend locally pointing at the Fly.io production backend
./scripts/deploy.sh	Deploy backend to Fly.io
./scripts/secrets.sh list	List current production secrets on Fly.io
./scripts/secrets.sh set	Interactively set all Fly.io production secrets
./scripts/secrets.sh rotate	Show key rotation checklist

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Architecture

CodeLive/
├── frontend/          React 19 + Vite + Tailwind CSS
│   ├── src/
│   └── Dockerfile.dev Dev container
├── backend/           Express + TypeScript + Yjs WebSocket
│   ├── src/
│   ├── Dockerfile     Production container
│   ├── Dockerfile.dev Dev container
│   └── fly.toml       Fly.io config
├── content/           Question bank (JSON + seed scripts)
├── docker-compose.yml Local dev orchestration
├── scripts/           Dev & deploy scripts
├── local-dev.md       Local dev setup guide
├── prod-dev.md        Fly.io deploy guide
├── SECRETS.md         Secret management docs
└── README.md          ← you are here

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 19, Vite, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Monaco Editor
Backend	Express, TypeScript, Yjs + WebSocket (collaborative editing)
Database	Supabase (PostgreSQL + Auth + Realtime)
AI	Anthropic Claude (chat assistant + report generation)
Hosting	Fly.io (backend)
Secrets	Infisical (local dev) · Fly.io secrets (production)

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Secret Management

Secrets are never committed to the repo. Two systems are used:

Environment	Secrets Source	How
Local dev	Infisical	npm run dev calls infisical run automatically
Production	Fly.io	Set via fly secrets set or ./scripts/secrets.sh set

Required Secrets

Backend:

Variable	Required	Description
SUPABASE_URL	✅	Supabase project URL
SUPABASE_ANON_KEY	✅	Supabase public anon key
SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY	✅	Supabase service role key (bypasses RLS)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	⚠️	Anthropic key — AI features degrade gracefully without it
CORS_ORIGINS	❌	Comma-separated origins (defaults to http://localhost:3000)

Frontend:

Variable	Required	Description
VITE_SUPABASE_URL	✅	Same Supabase project URL
VITE_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY	✅	Same Supabase public anon key

Full docs: SECRETS.md

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Deployment

The backend is deployed to Fly.io via Docker.

First-time deploy

# 1. Log in to Fly
fly auth login

# 2. Create the app (from backend/)
cd backend && fly launch --no-deploy

# 3. Set production secrets
./scripts/secrets.sh set

# 4. Deploy
./scripts/deploy.sh

Subsequent deploys

./scripts/deploy.sh

The deploy script runs pre-flight checks (Fly auth, TypeScript build, secrets count) before deploying.

Production URLs

Resource	URL
App	https://codelive-backend.fly.dev
Health	https://codelive-backend.fly.dev/health
Logs	fly logs --app codelive-backend
Status	fly status --app codelive-backend

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Local Development

Fully local (backend + frontend)

./scripts/dev-local.sh

Runs both servers via Docker:

• Frontend at http://localhost:3000
• Backend at http://localhost:5000

Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Frontend only, against Fly.io backend

./scripts/dev.sh

Runs only the frontend locally. API and WebSocket requests proxy to the deployed Fly.io backend. Both you and a teammate can run this simultaneously and share the same backend for collaborative sessions.

See local-dev.md for full setup instructions.

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Collaborative Sessions

Sessions use two real-time systems:

1. Yjs + WebSocket — Collaborative code editing (runs in the backend)
2. Supabase Realtime — Session state sync (question advances, locks, completion)

For local testing, open two browser tabs — one as interviewer, one as candidate. Both connect to your local backend's WebSocket server.

For cross-machine sessions, both users must connect to the same backend (either a deployed Fly.io instance, or via a tunnel like ngrok http 5000).

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Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
infisical: command not found	See install instructions in local-dev.md
You must be logged in	infisical login
SUPABASE_URL is undefined	Check secrets exist in Infisical Dev environment
Frontend env vars not loading	Must be prefixed with VITE_
Module not found after git pull	docker compose build then ./scripts/dev-local.sh
node_modules errors persist	docker compose down -v then ./scripts/dev-local.sh
Fly deploy fails	Check fly auth whoami and fly status
WebSocket not connecting	Ensure backend is running and Vite proxy is configured