This is a small, Hackathon‑ready Starter I mostly use as my Go‑to Template when I need to spin up a Full‑stack app quickly. Nothing fancy, just a clean React frontend and a simple PostgreSQL‑backed API that work nicely together.

Stack

• Frontend: React 19 + TypeScript + Vite + Tailwind
• Backend: Node + Express + PostgreSQL + Prisma
• DX: Single ./dev.sh script from the repo root

Setup

1. Start PostgreSQL locally:

   # macOS
   brew services start postgresql@16
   # Or check if running: pg_isready

2. Create database:

   createdb your_database_name

   (Replace your_database_name with your preferred database name)

3. Configure backend environment:

   cd backend
   cp .env.example .env

   Edit .env and update:

   DATABASE_URL="postgresql://YOUR_USERNAME:YOUR_PASSWORD@localhost:5432/YOUR_DATABASE_NAME?schema=public"
   PORT=4000

   (Replace YOUR_USERNAME, YOUR_PASSWORD, and YOUR_DATABASE_NAME with your PostgreSQL credentials)

4. Install and setup backend:

   cd backend
   npm install
   npm run prisma:generate
   npm run prisma:migrate

   (When prompted, name the migration: init)

Run it

chmod +x ./dev.sh   # first time only
./dev.sh            # starts backend on :4000 and Vite on :5173

Then open http://localhost:5173 – the home page auth system is fully backed by PostgreSQL via Prisma.

Project layout

• frontend/ – React app (landing UI in src/App.tsx, hooks in src/hooks/*, API clients in src/api/*).
• backend/ – Express app (src/index.js, database logic in src/db.js).
• backend/prisma/ – Prisma schema (schema.prisma) and migrations.
• dev.sh – Helper to install deps (on first run) and start both apps.

Start editing UI in frontend/src/App.tsx and backend logic in backend/src/index.js / backend/src/db.js.

Prisma Commands

• npm run prisma:generate - Generate Prisma Client after schema changes
• npm run prisma:migrate - Create and apply migrations (development)
• npm run prisma:migrate:deploy - Apply migrations (production)
• npm run prisma:push - Push schema changes without migrations (dev only)
• npm run prisma:studio - Open Prisma Studio (database GUI)

Production

• Backend: npm run start (runs node src/index.js)
• Frontend: npm run build then serve the dist/ folder

Pro Tip

• For a growing project, create a docs/ directory (e.g. docs/architecture.md, docs/api.md) and link to those files from here.
• Keep this README as the quick “how to run + where to edit” entry point, and push deeper explanations into docs/.