Recipme Backend

This is the backend service for Recipme, a recipe creation and versioning platform. It exposes a REST API built with Express and integrates with Firebase Authentication and MongoDB.

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Tech Stack

• Node.js with TypeScript
• Express web framework
• Firebase Auth (authentication)
• MongoDB (database)
• express-actuator (service health endpoints)
• tsx for fast TypeScript execution in development

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Getting Started

1. Clone and Install Dependencies

git clone git@github.com:alexwintle/recipme-backend.git
cd recipme-backend
npm install

2. Development Mode

Use this during development for hot-reloading and fast compilation with tsx:

npm run dev

To check the service is running, send a request to the health actuator endpoint:

e.g.

curl http://localhost:3000/actuator/health

Important

This will only work if you're running in development mode, where AUTH_ENABLED is set to false (the default). In production, this request would require a valid Firebase token.

• Runs the app with file watching and fast TypeScript transpilation.
• No need to manually build the project.

3. Production Build & Run

Build

Compile your TypeScript code into JavaScript:

npm run build

This will generate a dist/ folder with compiled files.

Start

Run the built code:

npm start

Runs node dist/app.js to start the app in production mode.

Running with Docker

With the docker daemon running, run the command following commands to run the service (mongo & backend) in detached mode:

Development Mode

docker-compose -f docker/docker-compose.api-dev.yml up -d

Production

docker-compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up -d

Project Structure

recipme-backend
├─ Dockerfile
├─ eslint.config.js
├─ jest.config.ts
├─ package-lock.json
├─ package.json
├─ README.md
├─ src
│  ├─ app.ts
│  ├─ controller
│  ├─ model
│  ├─ repository
│  ├─ routes
│  ├─ types
│  └─ __tests__
│     ├─ integration
│     └─ unit
└─ tsconfig.json

Authentication

This backend expects Firebase ID tokens in requests for protected routes.

• Users authenticate via Firebase on the frontend.
• The token is sent in the Authorization header (Bearer ) on API calls.
• The backend uses the Firebase Admin SDK to verify tokens and extract user identity.

Actuator Endpoints

The backend provides health and monitoring endpoints using express-actuator. Use these built-in endpoints to monitor the health of the service:

Endpoint	Description
GET /actuator/health	Service health check
GET /actuator/info	App version or metadata
GET /actuator/metrics	Basic app metrics
GET /actuator/list	🛠 Custom route: lists all available actuator endpoints (excluding itself)