SplitEasy — Day 1 Progress

Group expense splitter. Day 1 covers: project setup, database schema, and JWT authentication.

What's done today

• Project structure (client/ + server/)
• PostgreSQL schema: users, groups, group_members, expenses, expense_splits
• Auth API: signup, login, get current user (/api/auth/me)
• Passwords hashed with bcrypt, sessions handled via JWT

Setup

1. Database

Create a free Postgres database (recommended: Neon or Supabase). Then run the schema against it:

psql "<your-database-url>" -f server/schema.sql

(Or paste the contents of server/schema.sql into your provider's SQL editor.)

2. Backend

cd server
npm install
cp .env.example .env
# edit .env: paste your DATABASE_URL and set a random JWT_SECRET
npm run dev

Server runs at http://localhost:5000. Visit it in a browser — you should see:

{"status": "SplitEasy API is running"}

3. Test the auth endpoints

Using curl, Postman, or Thunder Client:

Sign up

curl -X POST http://localhost:5000/api/auth/signup \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"Jane Doe","email":"jane@example.com","password":"password123"}'

Log in

curl -X POST http://localhost:5000/api/auth/login \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"jane@example.com","password":"password123"}'

Both return a token — copy it and use it to test the protected route:

Get current user

curl http://localhost:5000/api/auth/me \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <paste-token-here>"

Day 2 — Groups & Expenses

New endpoints (all require the Authorization: Bearer <token> header from login):

Create a group

POST /api/groups
Body: { "name": "Goa Trip" }

List my groups

GET /api/groups

Get one group + members

GET /api/groups/:groupId

Add a member (they must already have a SplitEasy account)

POST /api/groups/:groupId/members
Body: { "email": "friend@example.com" }

Add an expense (equal split)

POST /api/groups/:groupId/expenses
Body: {
  "description": "Dinner",
  "amount": 1200,
  "paidBy": 1
}

Add an expense (custom split)

POST /api/groups/:groupId/expenses
Body: {
  "description": "Cab",
  "amount": 500,
  "paidBy": 1,
  "splitType": "custom",
  "splits": [
    { "userId": 1, "amount": 300 },
    { "userId": 2, "amount": 200 }
  ]
}

List expenses in a group

GET /api/groups/:groupId/expenses

Get balances (who owes / is owed how much)

GET /api/groups/:groupId/balances

Returns each member's paid, owed, and net balance. Positive balance = they're owed money. Negative = they owe money.

Testing in PowerShell (Invoke-RestMethod)

Remember to save the token you got from login and include it in every request:

$token = "paste_your_token_here"
$headers = @{ Authorization = "Bearer $token" }

# Create a group
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://localhost:5000/api/groups" -Method POST -Headers $headers -ContentType "application/json" -Body '{"name":"Goa Trip"}'

Day 3 — Settle-Up Algorithm

Added GET /api/groups/:groupId/settle-up — simplifies everyone's debts into the minimum number of payments needed, using a greedy largest-creditor/largest-debtor matching algorithm (see server/utils/settleUp.js).

Day 4 — Frontend

React + Tailwind client in client/, purple theme. Pages: login, signup, dashboard (group list), and group detail (members, add expense, balances, settle-up view).

Running the frontend

cd client
npm install
npm run dev

Opens at http://localhost:5173. Make sure the backend (server/) is running at the same time on http://localhost:5000 — the frontend talks to it directly.

Design tokens

• Colors: plum #2D1B4E, amethyst #7C4DFF, violet #5B21B6, lavender #F3EEFF, ink #1E1B2E, owed #22C55E, owe #F97066
• Fonts: Sora (headings), Inter (body/data)
• Signature element: settle-up transactions render as connected avatar pills with an arrow, not a plain table

Next up — Day 5

Deploy backend (Render) + frontend (Vercel), final polish, README.