LegalGuard (BISP)

Full-stack legal document analysis platform: ASP.NET 9 backend, Angular 20 frontend, PostgreSQL database, OpenAI integration.

Repository: https://github.com/diyorrf/BISP

Quick start with Docker

Prerequisites: Docker and Docker Compose.

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/diyorrf/BISP.git
cd BISP

2. Create the .env file

Copy the example and fill in your secrets:

cp .env.example .env

Open .env and set the required values:

# PostgreSQL (used by both the db container and the backend connection string)
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres

# JWT authentication
JWT_SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-here

# OpenAI (REQUIRED — the app will not work without a valid key)
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-openai-api-key-here
OPENAI_CHAT_MODEL=gpt-4.1-mini
OPENAI_EMBEDDING_MODEL=text-embedding-3-large

# Email (SMTP for sending verification codes)
EMAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
EMAIL_PORT=587
EMAIL_SENDER=your-email@gmail.com
EMAIL_USERNAME=your-email@gmail.com
EMAIL_PASSWORD=your-gmail-app-password

Important: OPENAI_API_KEY and EMAIL_PASSWORD have no defaults — the app will not start properly without them.

For Gmail, use an App Password (not your regular password).

3. Build and run

docker compose up --build

4. Apply database migrations

On the first run, the database tables need to be created. Run this once:

docker compose exec backend dotnet ef database update

If dotnet-ef is not available inside the container, apply migrations from your host machine (requires .NET 9 SDK):

cd back
dotnet ef database update -- --connection "Host=localhost;Port=5432;Database=LegalGuard;Username=postgres;Password=postgres"

5. Open the app

• Frontend: http://localhost:4200
• Backend API: http://localhost:5041 (also accessible through Nginx at http://localhost:4200/api)
• PostgreSQL: localhost:5432 (user postgres, password from .env)

How configuration works

The backend reads settings from two sources (in order of priority):

1. Environment variables (highest priority) — set via .env → docker-compose.yml
2. appsettings.json (fallback) — used for local development without Docker

Environment variables use __ (double underscore) to represent nested config sections:

.env variable	Maps to appsettings.json path
ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection	ConnectionStrings.DefaultConnection
OpenAI__ApiKey	OpenAI.ApiKey
JwtSettings__SecretKey	JwtSettings.SecretKey
EmailSettings__Password	EmailSettings.Password

When running with Docker, you only need the .env file — appsettings.json is not copied into the container.

When running locally without Docker, the backend reads from appsettings.json directly.

Running without Docker (local development)

1. Database (PostgreSQL)

Run PostgreSQL 16 locally or in a standalone container:

docker run -d --name pg -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=0549 -e POSTGRES_DB=LegalGuard -p 5432:5432 postgres:16-alpine

2. Backend

cd back
cp appsettings.json.example appsettings.json   # fill in your secrets
dotnet restore
dotnet ef database update
dotnet watch run --urls "http://localhost:5041"

3. Frontend

cd front
npm install
npm start

App runs at http://localhost:4200 and proxies API calls to http://localhost:5041.

Project layout

Directory	Stack	Description
back/	ASP.NET 9	Web API, EF Core, JWT, OpenAI
front/	Angular 20	SPA, Tailwind CSS, Lucide icons
(root)	Docker	docker-compose.yml for db, backend, frontend

Architecture (Docker)

Browser → :4200 → Nginx (frontend container)
                    ├── static files (Angular SPA)
                    ├── /api/* → proxy → backend:5000
                    └── /ws/*  → proxy → backend:5000 (WebSocket)
                                           └── db:5432 (PostgreSQL)

All three services (database, backend, frontend) run in separate containers. Nginx serves the Angular app and reverse-proxies API and WebSocket requests to the backend.