To save your time and frustration I've prepared a vagrantfile with a test database
To run the database locally:
Install mysql
Install virtualbox
Install vagrant
Install vagrant-triggers
Run vagrant up
A brand new instance of MySQL should be listening on port 3310
Install nvm
Install node: nvm install 6
Install dependencies: npm install
Start api: npm run start:dev
Api listens on port 4000 by default, hit http://localhost:4000/health to see if it's live and kicking
POST /signup - it accepts login and password. Once it's been verified that there's no user with the given login in the database, the login and hashed password is saved in the database and a JWT token is created and sent back to the user
POST /singin - it accepts login and password. It checks if the login and password are ok and a JWT token is sent back to the user
GET / - in order to access the route you have to include the JWT token in the authorization header in the request.