Velora AI

An AI-powered chatbot that understands user requirements and helps execute tasks through personalized, efficient, and automated conversations.

Velora AI is a full-stack chatbot application built with React, Vite, Node.js, Express, MongoDB, and the OpenAI API. Users can create an account, manage conversations, continue previous chats, and receive AI-generated responses through a responsive web interface.

✨ Features

• 🔐 User signup, login, logout, and session handling
• 🛡️ JWT-protected API routes with password hashing via bcrypt
• 💬 Create, open, continue, and delete conversations
• 🗃️ Persistent chat history stored in MongoDB
• 🤖 OpenAI-powered assistant responses
• 🧪 Built-in demo assistant fallback when the OpenAI API is unavailable
• 📝 Markdown rendering with GitHub Flavored Markdown support
• 💻 Syntax-highlighted code blocks with copy support
• 📱 Responsive layout with mobile sidebar navigation
• ⚡ Loading states, error banners, auto-scroll, and protected routes
• 🔧 Vite development proxy and configurable API base URL

🧰 Tech stack

Frontend

• React 19
• Vite
• React Router
• Axios
• React Markdown
• Remark GFM
• Rehype Highlight
• Highlight.js
• Lucide React

Backend

• Node.js
• Express 5
• Mongoose
• MongoDB
• JSON Web Tokens
• bcryptjs
• OpenAI Node SDK
• dotenv
• Morgan

📁 Project structure

Velora-AI/
├── client/
│   ├── .env.example
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── vite.config.js
│   └── src/
│       ├── api/
│       ├── components/
│       ├── context/
│       ├── hooks/
│       ├── pages/
│       ├── utils/
│       ├── App.jsx
│       ├── index.css
│       └── main.jsx
├── server/
│   ├── .env.example
│   ├── package.json
│   └── src/
│       ├── config/
│       ├── controllers/
│       ├── middleware/
│       ├── models/
│       ├── routes/
│       ├── services/
│       ├── utils/
│       ├── app.js
│       └── server.js
└── README.md

✅ Prerequisites

Make sure the following are installed before starting:

• Node.js 18 or newer
• npm
• MongoDB locally or a MongoDB Atlas cluster
• An OpenAI API key, if you want to use live AI responses

🚀 Getting started

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/dk5847001-stack/Velora-AI.git
cd Velora-AI

2. Configure environment variables

Create environment files from the provided examples.

PowerShell

Copy-Item server\.env.example server\.env
Copy-Item client\.env.example client\.env

macOS/Linux

cp server/.env.example server/.env
cp client/.env.example client/.env

Update server/.env with your local configuration:

PORT=5000
NODE_ENV=development
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/velora-chat
JWT_SECRET=replace-with-a-long-random-secret
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key
OPENAI_MODEL=gpt-5-mini
OPENAI_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS=1200
FORCE_DEMO_MODE=false
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173

Update client/.env if your API is running on a different URL:

VITE_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000/api

Keep .env files private. Never commit API keys, database credentials, or JWT secrets to the repository.

3. Install dependencies

Install the backend dependencies:

cd server
npm install

Install the frontend dependencies:

cd ../client
npm install

▶️ Run locally

Start the backend development server in one terminal:

cd server
npm run dev

Start the frontend development server in a second terminal:

cd client
npm run dev

Open the application at:

• Frontend: http://localhost:5173
• API: http://localhost:5000

📦 Production build

Build the frontend for production:

cd client
npm run build

The generated files are placed in client/dist.

To preview the production build locally:

npm run preview

Start the backend in production mode with:

cd ../server
npm start

🔌 API routes

Authentication

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/auth/signup	Create a new user account
POST	/api/auth/login	Authenticate a user
POST	/api/auth/logout	Acknowledge user logout
GET	/api/auth/me	Return the authenticated user

Chats

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/chats	List the authenticated user's chats
POST	/api/chats	Create a new chat
GET	/api/chats/:chatId	Get a specific chat
POST	/api/chats/:chatId/messages	Send a message to a chat
DELETE	/api/chats/:chatId	Delete a chat

⚙️ Configuration notes

• OPENAI_API_KEY enables live OpenAI responses.
• Set FORCE_DEMO_MODE=true to use demo responses intentionally.
• If the OpenAI key is missing or the provider is temporarily unavailable, the server uses built-in demo assistant responses.
• VITE_API_BASE_URL controls the API URL used by the client.
• The Vite /api proxy is available for local development.
• Logout uses client-side token removal with a server acknowledgement endpoint, which is suitable for the stateless JWT flow used by this project.

🛡️ Security recommendations

• Use a long, randomly generated JWT_SECRET.
• Do not expose .env files or API keys publicly.
• Use HTTPS in production.
• Restrict CLIENT_URL to trusted frontend origins.
• Use a dedicated production MongoDB database and credentials.
• Rotate exposed secrets immediately if they are accidentally committed.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions, ideas, and bug reports are welcome.

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature.
3. Make your changes and test them locally.
4. Commit your work: git commit -m "Add your change".
5. Push the branch and open a pull request.

📄 License

No license has been specified for this repository yet. If you plan to accept external contributions or distribute the project, add an appropriate license file.

👤 Author

Built by dk5847001-stack.