Vertex AI Studio Frontend App with Node.js Backend

This repository contains a frontend and a Node.js backend, designed to run together. The backend acts as a proxy, handling Google Cloud API calls.

This project is intended for demonstration and prototyping purposes only. It is not intended for use in a production environment.

Prerequisites

To run this application locally, you need:

• Google Cloud SDK / gcloud CLI: Follow the instructions to install the SDK.

• gcloud Initialization:

  • Initialize the gcloud CLI:

    gcloud init

  • Authenticate for Application Default Credentials (needed to call Google Cloud APIs):

    gcloud auth application-default login

• Node.js and npm: Ensure you have Node.js and its package manager, npm, installed on your machine.

Project Structure

The project is organized into two main directories:

• frontend/: Contains the Frontend application code.
• backend/: Contains the Node.js/Express server code to proxy Google Cloud API calls.

Backend Environment Variables

The backend/.env.local file is automatically generated when you download this application. It contains essential Google Cloud environment variables pre-configured based on your project settings at the time of download.

The variables set in backend/.env.local are:

• API_BACKEND_PORT: The port the backend API server listens on (e.g., 5000).
• API_PAYLOAD_MAX_SIZE: The maximum size of the request payload accepted by the backend server (e.g., 5mb).
• GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION: The Google Cloud region associated with your project.
• GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT: Your Google Cloud Project ID.

Note: These variables are automatically populated during the download process. You can modify the values in backend/.env.local if you need to change them.

Installation and Running the App

To install dependencies and run your Google Cloud Vertex AI Studio App locally, execute the following command:

npm install && npm run dev