Campus Marketplace

Campus Marketplace

BUY! SELL! RIDE! COMPUTE!

CI status | GitHub release | Discord | MIT License

Campus Marketplace is a comprehensive, full-stack platform designed exclusively for college students. It connects you with your peers within a verified university ecosystem to securely buy, sell, request items, organize carpools, and even share idle GPU resources for distributed machine learning. The Azure-backed infrastructure handles the heavy lifting — the product is the seamless campus connection.

If you want a safe, student-focused marketplace that feels local, fast, and always-on, this is it.

Website · Docs · Vision · Getting Started · Infrastructure · FAQ

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Preferred setup

To get started with local development, ensure you have Go ≥1.23 and Node ≥20 installed. The project is split into distinct backend and frontend application layers, with infrastructure managed via Terraform.

New install? Start here: Getting started

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Subscriptions & Integrations

Cloud & Databases (Azure):

• Azure Container Apps: Serverless container hosting for the API.
• Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server: Primary relational database.
• Azure Blob Storage: Cloud storage for product images and assets.

Core Services:

• Google OAuth (Authentication)
• Groq API (AI features)

Note: For the best experience and to deploy your own instance, ensure you have an active Azure subscription with the required resource providers registered.

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Install (recommended)

Backend (Go / Gin / GORM)

Runtime: Go ≥1.23.

git clone https://github.com/alphastar-avi/marketplace.git
cd marketplace/backend

# Set up your environment variables
cp .env.example .env

# Run the Go server (automatically runs standard DB migrations)
go run main.go

The backend API will start on http://localhost:8080.

Frontend (React / Vite / TailwindCSS)

Runtime: Node ≥20.

cd marketplace/frontend

npm install
# or: pnpm install / bun install

npm run dev

The frontend application will start on http://localhost:5173.

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Development branches

• main: The active development branch. All new features, bug fixes, and continuous integration target this branch.
• prod: The production branch. This branch is directly linked to Terraform and Azure deployments.
• Switch channels: git checkout main|prod. Details: Development branches

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Security defaults (University-Gated Access)

Campus Marketplace connects real students. Treat inbound requests seriously.

• Authentication: JWT-based authentication ensures only verified students can interact.
• Authorization: Students can only view and interact with products and users within their specific .edu college ecosystem.
• Smart Filtering: Distinct separation between "My Listings" and the global marketplace to prevent self-purchasing confusion or malicious manipulation.

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Highlights

• University-Gated Access — secure JWT authentication enforcing college-specific interactions.
• Real-time Chat — integrated WebSocket/polling messaging system for buyers and sellers.
• Carpooling — a dedicated module for students to offer or request rides to and from campus.
• Purchase Requests — formalized, trackable workflow for buyers to request items.
• ComputeShare (Federated Learning) — a distributed PyTorch module allowing users to share idle Mac GPU resources (MPS) to exponentially accelerate machine learning tasks.
• Live 3D Canvas — interactive 3D elements powered by React Three Fiber.

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Everything we built so far

Core platform

• Database schemas (GORM) for Users, Colleges, Products, Chats, Messages, PurchaseRequests, and Favorites.
• RESTful API endpoints with strict ownership and payload validation.
• Authentication middleware handling token verification and college context injection.

Frontend Client

• Marketplace feed with smart filtering.
• User profiles with dedicated "My Listings" management.
• Chat interfaces for direct negotiation.
• Carpool board for ride coordination.

Cloud Infrastructure

• Terraform configurations (/terraform) for declarative IaC.
• Azure Container Apps environment provisioning.
• Azure PostgreSQL server and firewall rules initialization.
• Blob Storage containers for asset management.

ComputeShare (PyTorch)

• Parameter Server utilizing the Linear Scaling Rule.
• Distributed Workers capable of local gzip tensor compression.
• Stale Gradients Rejection logic to protect global weights.

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How it works (short)

       Frontend (React/Vite)
               │
               ▼
┌───────────────────────────────┐
│        Go Gin Backend         │
│         (Azure App)           │
│    https://api.domain.com     │
└──────────────┬────────────────┘
               │
               ├─ Azure PostgreSQL (Data)
               ├─ Azure Blob Storage (Assets)
               └─ ComputeShare Nodes (MPS GPUs)

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Ops + packaging

• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform scripts automatically manage the Azure environment.
• Containerization: Multi-stage Dockerfile and Dockerfile.scratch builds minimize the backend image payload.
• CD/CI: Pushes to the prod branch automatically trigger Azure deployments.

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Docs

Use these when you’re past the onboarding flow and want the deeper reference.

• Start with the /backend/models to understand the database ERD.
• Read the /terraform/main.tf for the infrastructure overview.
• Use the /frontend/src/api/services.ts to see all available frontend-to-backend hooks.
• For AI training, read the /computeShare/README.md operational runbook.

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Molty

Campus Marketplace was built to connect students effortlessly. 🎓 by the community.