Project Setup Guide

A concise walkthrough for installing dependencies and running both the Flask backend and the Vite/Vue frontend locally.

---

Prerequisites

Tool	Version	Notes
Python	3.10 + (tested on 3.11)	Install from https://www.python.org/ or via a package manager.
Node.js & npm	18 +	Download from https://nodejs.org/.
Git (optional)	latest	Recommended for cloning the repo.

Tip – verify installations:

python --version
node --version
npm --version

---

Repository Layout

├── backend/    # Flask API
│   ├── app.py
│   ├── requirements.txt
│   └── …
└── frontend/   # Vite + Vue client
    ├── src/
    ├── package.json
    └── …

---

1. Environment Variables

Use a .env file in backend/ to store configuration variables. A sample template is provided below as .env.example.

# SYSTEM
DEBUG=True
SECRET_KEY=
DB_NAME=database
DB_USER=
DB_PASSWORD=
DB_HOST=
DB_PORT=

# OPEN AI
OPENAI_DEFAULT_MODEL=gpt-4o
OPENAI_API_KEY=
# GEMINI
GEMINI_DEFAULT_MODEL=gemini-1.5-flash
GEMINI_API_KEY=

To use:

1. Copy the example file:

   cp backend/.env.example backend/.env

2. Fill in the missing values as needed.

---

2. Backend Setup (Flask)

# 1 — move into the backend folder
cd backend

# 2 — create & activate a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv

# Windows
.venv\Scripts\activate
# macOS / Linux
source .venv/bin/activate

# 3 — install Python dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 4 — run the development server
flask --app app run --debug

The API will default to http://127.0.0.1:5000/.

---

3. Frontend Setup (Vite / Vue)

Open a second terminal tab/window so the backend can keep running.

# 1 — move into the frontend folder
cd frontend

# 2 — install JS dependencies
npm install

# 3 — start Vite's dev server (Vue 3)
npm run dev

# 4 — optional: create a production build
npm run build

The app will be served at http://localhost:5173/ and should hot-reload on file changes.

Note: The frontend uses Vue 3 with the official Vite plugin (@vitejs/plugin-vue). Ensure npm install completes successfully so that Vite is available for the dev and build scripts.

---

Happy testing! 🚀

License