LifePulse

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🧠 Overview

LifePulse is a full-stack personal productivity and mental wellness system designed to help users track habits, mood patterns, journaling insights, and long-term goals.

It is built using a fully containerized distributed architecture consisting of:

• React + Vite frontend (Docker container)
• FastAPI backend (Docker container)
• PostgreSQL database (Docker volume persistence)
• Nginx reverse proxy
• CI/CD pipeline via GitHub Actions
• AWS EC2 deployment

The project demonstrates production-grade engineering practices including asynchronous APIs, modular architecture, secure authentication, and automated cloud deployment.

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🚀 Key Features

📝 Personal Journaling

Daily journaling system for self-reflection and emotional tracking.

🔁 Habit Tracking

• Streak-based logic
• Calendar-based visualization
• Persistent progress history

😊 Mood Tracking

• Daily mood logging
• Trend visualization
• Emotional pattern analysis

📊 Smart Dashboard

Unified overview of:

• Habits
• Journals
• Mood trends
• Daily progress

💡 Daily Inspiration

External API integration for motivational quotes

🔐 Authentication System

• JWT-based authentication
• Secure password hashing (bcrypt)
• Protected API routes

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🏗️ System Architecture

                ┌────────────────────────────┐
                │   React Frontend Container  │
                │     (Vite + React)         │
                └────────────┬───────────────┘
                             │ /api
                             ▼
                ┌────────────────────────────┐
                │        Nginx Proxy         │
                │  (Reverse Proxy Layer)     │
                └────────────┬───────────────┘
                             │
                ┌────────────▼───────────────┐
                │     FastAPI Backend         │
                │   (Docker Container)        │
                └────────────┬───────────────┘
                             │
                ┌────────────▼───────────────┐
                │   PostgreSQL Database       │
                │ (Docker + Persistent Volume)│
                └────────────────────────────┘

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🌐 Production Request Flow (AWS EC2)

In production, the system runs behind an Nginx reverse proxy on AWS EC2.

Browser
   ↓
https://your-domain.com (or EC2 Public IP)
   ↓
Nginx (port 80 / 443)
   ├── / → React Frontend Container
   └── /api → FastAPI Backend Container (port 8000)

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🔁 API Communication Flow

Frontend calls:

fetch("/api/users")

Nginx internally forwards it to:

http://backend:8000/users

The backend is NOT exposed directly to the internet.

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🔒 Why This Architecture

• Prevents CORS issues completely
• Single domain for frontend + backend
• Backend remains private
• Fully containerized microservice-style architecture
• Clean reverse proxy routing with Nginx
• Production-grade deployment pattern
• Scalable via Docker Compose

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🧱 Tech Stack

Frontend

• React 19
• Vite
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS v4
• Context API + Hooks
• Lucide Icons

Backend

• FastAPI (Python 3.11+)
• SQLModel ORM
• PostgreSQL 15
• JWT Authentication
• Alembic migrations
• Passlib (bcrypt hashing)

DevOps & Infrastructure

• Docker & Docker Compose
• Nginx reverse proxy
• GitHub Actions CI/CD
• AWS EC2 deployment

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🐳 Infrastructure Model

• React frontend runs in a Docker container
• FastAPI backend runs in a separate container
• PostgreSQL runs with persistent Docker volume storage
• Nginx acts as a single entry point (reverse proxy)
• All services communicate over a Docker internal network

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⚠️ Docker Image Naming Clarification

The GitHub repository name and Docker image names are intentionally different.

• GitHub Repository: LifePulse

• Docker Images:

  • neonbluewhale/rumi-frontend
  • neonbluewhale/rumi-backend

Why this exists:

• Docker images are published under a Docker Hub namespace
• Image naming originated from an earlier project structure
• CI/CD pipeline is independent of repository naming
• This does NOT affect functionality or deployment

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🔄 CI/CD Pipeline (GitHub Actions)

Automated workflow:

1. Trigger on push or PR to frontend/ or backend/
2. Build Docker images for services
3. Push images to Docker Hub
4. SSH into AWS EC2 instance
5. Pull latest images
6. Restart services using docker compose up -d

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☁️ Deployment to AWS EC2 (Production Setup)

LifePulse is deployed on AWS EC2 using Docker and Nginx.

🏗️ Production Architecture

Browser
   ↓
EC2 Public URL (Domain / Elastic IP)
   ↓
Nginx (Port 80 / 443)
   ├── /      → React Frontend Container
   └── /api   → FastAPI Backend Container

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🚀 Deployment Steps

1. EC2 Setup

Install:

• Docker
• Docker Compose

2. Clone repository

git clone <repo-url>
cd project

3. Configure environment

SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@db:5432/LifePulse

4. Start services

docker compose up -d --build

This starts:

• Frontend container
• Backend container
• PostgreSQL (persistent volume)
• Nginx reverse proxy

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🌐 Accessing the Application

http://<EC2-PUBLIC-IP>

or (recommended):

https://your-domain.com

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📌 Highlights

• Fully containerized production-grade architecture
• Real-world reverse proxy setup using Nginx
• Microservice-style service separation
• Persistent database layer using Docker volumes
• Fully automated CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions
• Secure JWT authentication system
• AWS EC2 cloud deployment experience
• Clean separation of frontend, backend, and infrastructure

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