Second Brain

Second Brain is a full-stack personal knowledge base for capturing ideas, saving links and media, and sharing a curated public view with one link.

What It Does

• Create an account and sign in with JWT-based authentication.
• Save content items with a title, link, and type.
• Organize saved content in a protected dashboard.
• Filter items by content type.
• Preview supported content types directly in the dashboard.
• Generate a shareable public brain link for others to view.
• Copy item links and share links to the clipboard.
• Switch between light and dark themes in the dashboard.

Tech Stack

Frontend

• React 19
• Vite
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS
• Framer Motion
• React Router
• Axios
• react-hot-toast

Backend

• Node.js
• Express
• TypeScript
• MongoDB with Mongoose
• JSON Web Tokens
• bcrypt
• Zod
• CORS

Project Structure

backend/           Express + TypeScript API
frontend/          React + Vite client
embedding_service/ Placeholder service folder

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later
• npm
• MongoDB connection string

Environment Variables

Backend

Create a .env file inside backend/:

MONGODB_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
JWT_SECREAT=your_jwt_secret
PORT=3000

Note: the backend currently reads JWT_SECREAT with that exact spelling.

Frontend

Create a .env file inside frontend/:

VITE_BACKEND_URL=http://localhost:3000

The checked-in frontend .env points to the deployed backend, so update it locally if you are running the API on your machine.

Running Locally

1. Start the backend

cd backend
npm install
npm run build
npm run start

If you prefer the scripted workflow in this repo, npm run dev builds first and then starts the compiled server.

2. Start the frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

The app will be available in the Vite dev server output, usually at http://localhost:5173.

How It Works

1. Sign up with a name, username, and password.
2. Sign in to receive a JWT token.
3. Use the dashboard to add content items with a title, URL, and type.
4. Filter your saved content by type.
5. Share your brain with a generated public link.
6. Open the shared view to browse the published content without signing in.

Supported Content Types

• Image
• Video
• Article
• Audio

API Overview

Auth

• POST /api/v1/user/signup
• POST /api/v1/user/signin
• GET /api/v1/user/me

Content

• POST /api/v1/content
• GET /api/v1/content
• DELETE /api/v1/content

Sharing

• POST /api/v1/brain/share
• GET /api/v1/brain/:shareLink

Most protected routes expect the JWT token in the Authorization header.

Deployment Notes

• The backend includes a Vercel configuration that routes requests to backend/src/index.ts.
• The frontend includes a Vercel rewrite so client-side routes keep working on refresh.

Future Ideas

• Add richer content notes and tagging.
• Add delete and edit actions in the dashboard UI.
• Expand search and sorting.
• Wire up the placeholder embedding service if semantic search is added later.

License

This project is currently marked as ISC in the package metadata.