Highlights:

• 🔐 Custom JWT Authentication (no 3rd-party auth)
• ⚡ Real-time Messaging via Socket.io
• 🟢 Online/Offline Presence Indicators
• 🔔 Notification & Typing Sounds (with toggle)
• 📨 Welcome Emails on Signup (Resend)
• 🗂️ Image Uploads (Cloudinary)
• 🧰 REST API with Node.js & Express
• 🧱 MongoDB for Data Persistence
• 🚦 API Rate-Limiting powered by Arcjet
• 🎨 Beautiful UI with React, Tailwind CSS & DaisyUI
• 🧠 Zustand for State Management
• 🧑‍💻 Git & GitHub Workflow (branches, PRs, merges)
• 🚀 Easy Deployment (free-tier friendly with Sevalla)

PORT=3000
MONGO_URI=your_mongo_uri_here

NODE_ENV=development

JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret

RESEND_API_KEY=your_resend_api_key
EMAIL_FROM=your_email_from_address
EMAIL_FROM_NAME=your_email_from_name

CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173

CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloudinary_cloud_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_api_secret

ARCJET_KEY=your_arcjet_key
ARCJET_ENV=development

cd backend
npm install
npm run dev

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev