Open Education — Backend

NestJS API for the Open Education platform: auth, courses, AI roadmaps and content generation, assessments, payments (Razorpay), object storage (MinIO), and real-time updates (Socket.IO).

How the product fits together (architecture, flows, and motivation): Open Education — blog

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• Docker (Postgres with pgvector, Redis, MinIO; see docker-compose.yml)
• For video pipeline features on the machine that runs the API: FFmpeg and Marp CLI (@marp-team/marp-cli) available on PATH

Quick start

1. Copy environment file and fill secrets:

   cp .env.example .env

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Start infrastructure (database, Redis, MinIO, bucket setup, optional Pgweb):

   npm run dev:up

   On a first run with a new Postgres volume, database/init/complete-schema.sql is applied automatically.

4. Run the API (default port 8081):

   npm run start:dev

5. Smoke check:

   curl http://localhost:8081/health

Useful scripts

Script	Purpose
npm run dev:up	Start db, redis, minio, minio-setup, pgweb
npm run dev:down	Stop compose stack
npm run db:reset	Drop/recreate public schema (destructive)
npm run db:recreate	Remove volumes and bring DB stack up fresh

Environment variables

Values are documented in .env.example. Summary:

Variable	Required	Notes
JWT_SECRET, JWT_REFRESH_SECRET	Yes	Access + refresh token signing
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID, GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET	Yes for Google login	Same client as frontend NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID
FRONTEND_URL	Recommended	Redirects and CORS-related flows (default http://localhost:3000)
GOOGLE_CALLBACK_URL	Optional	Default http://localhost:8081/auth/google/callback
DATABASE_URL or DB_*	Yes	Postgres; local Docker uses host localhost, port 5433
REDIS_URL	Yes	BullMQ; local example redis://localhost:6380
MINIO_*	Yes	Align with MinIO root user/password and endpoints
OPENAI_API_KEY	Yes for AI	Roadmaps, embeddings, generation, buddy
OPENAI_CHAT_MODEL	No	Overrides default chat model in some services
RAZORPAY_KEY_ID, RAZORPAY_KEY_SECRET, RAZORPAY_WEBHOOK_SECRET	Yes	Loaded at startup by the payments module
RESEND_API_KEY	Only if email is integrated	Not required for basic API boot
OWNER_* / OWNER_JWT_TOKEN	Optional	Owner admin helpers; change defaults in production

Ports (local Docker)

Service	Port
API	8081
Postgres	5433 → 5432
Redis	6380 → 6379
MinIO API / console	9000 / 9001
Pgweb	8083

Deploying with a custom frontend URL

Update allowed origins in:

• src/main.ts (HTTP CORS)
• src/modules/websocket/websocket.gateway.ts (Socket.IO CORS)

Set FRONTEND_URL in .env to match your frontend.

Blog

Project vision and end-to-end flows: https://aniketdutta.space/blog/open-education