Kindred

Live Demo: https://kindred-seven-pi.vercel.app

Kindred is a full-stack web app for tracking community impact. Volunteers log their work in a journal, earn points across six impact tracks, and unlock earned titles as their points grow. A shared directory lets people find other volunteers by location and interest.

Features

• Email and password accounts secured with JWT (7 day expiry) and bcrypt password hashing
• Profiles with name, location, bio, interests, and a privacy toggle for community visibility
• Six impact tracks: Environment, Education, Social Work, Healthcare, Animal Welfare, and Disaster Relief
• Earned titles based on track points, including combination titles drawn from your top three tracks
• Journal entries worth 10 points each, credited to the chosen track
• Community directory of visible members with location and interest filters plus community stats
• Profile and settings pages

Tech stack

• Frontend: React 19, Vite, React Router 7, plain CSS
• Backend: Express 5, MongoDB via Mongoose 9, JSON Web Tokens, bcryptjs, CORS, rate limiting
• Tooling: ESLint, gitleaks secret scanning via pre-commit hooks

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or newer
• A running MongoDB instance (local or hosted)

The backend reads these environment variables:

Variable	Required	Purpose
MONGODB_URI	No	Connection string. Defaults to mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/kindred
JWT_SECRET	Yes	Secret used to sign auth tokens
PORT	No	Backend port. Defaults to 5000
FRONTEND_URL	No	Extra allowed origin for CORS in production

The frontend reads one optional variable:

Variable	Required	Purpose
VITE_API_URL	No	Backend API base URL. Defaults to http://localhost:5000/api

Getting started

Clone the repository, then install dependencies separately for the backend and the frontend.

Backend setup

cd kindred/kindred-backend
npm install

Create a .env file next to server.js:

MONGODB_URI=mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/kindred
JWT_SECRET=replace-with-a-long-random-string
PORT=5000

Start the backend:

npm run dev     # nodemon, auto restarts
npm start       # plain node

The API runs on http://localhost:5000.

Frontend setup

Open a second terminal:

cd kindred
npm install
npm run dev

The app runs on http://localhost:5173.

Project layout

kindred/
├── README.md            # This file
└── kindred/             # React + Vite frontend
    ├── index.html
    ├── pages/           # ProfileSettingsPage (routed at /profile by src/App.jsx)
    ├── components/
    │   └── settings/    # BasicInfoSection, InterestsSection, SaveBar, visibilitySection
    ├── src/
    │   ├── components/  # Nav, journal timeline, title card, hero space
    │   ├── context/     # AuthContext for login state
    │   ├── data/        # Title ladders per track
    │   ├── pages/       # Auth, Home, Community pages
    │   └── services/    # API client
    └── kindred-backend/ # Express API
        ├── server.js    # App entry point and route mounting
        ├── middleware/  # JWT auth guard
        ├── models/      # User and JournalEntry schemas
        └── routes/      # auth, users, journal, community

API summary

Base URL: http://localhost:5000/api

Auth (/api/auth)

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/auth/register	Create an account and return a token
POST	/auth/login	Sign in and return a token
POST	/auth/guest	One-click guest login, no form needed, returns a token

Users (/api/users, requires a bearer token)

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/users/profile	Get your profile
PUT	/users/profile	Update profile fields and visibility
GET	/users/tracks	Get your six tracks and points
PUT	/users/tracks/:trackName	Set points for one track

Journal (/api/journal, requires a bearer token)

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/journal/entries	Create an entry and add 10 points to its category
GET	/journal/entries	List your entries, newest first
DELETE	/journal/entries/:entryId	Delete one of your entries

Community (/api/community, public)

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/community/members	Visible members, filterable by location and interest query params
GET	/community/members/:userId	One visible member
GET	/community/stats	Member count plus distinct locations and interests

Health (/api/health)

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/health	Returns { status: "Backend is running" }

Rate limiting applies globally at 300 requests per 15 minutes, and auth endpoints are limited to 20 requests per 15 minutes.

Security

This repo uses gitleaks to scan every commit for secrets such as API keys, passwords, tokens, and private keys.

Install the hook locally:

pip install pre-commit
pre-commit install

Use git commit --no-verify only in emergencies. Regular commits should always be scanned.