Phase 2.1: Backend project initialized with Docker configuration

- Created Cargo.toml with all required dependencies
- Implemented health/ready endpoints
- Added Docker configuration (production + development)
- Configured docker-compose with resource limits
- Set up MongoDB service with persistence
- Verified build (cargo check passed)
- Prepared monorepo structure for mobile/web/shared

Next: Phase 2.2 (MongoDB connection and models)

thoughts/research/2026-02-14-phase-2.1-backend-initialization-complete.md

@@ -0,0 +1,149 @@
+# Phase 2.1: Backend Project Initialization - COMPLETE
+
+## Date: 2026-02-14
+
+## Summary
+
+Successfully initialized the Rust backend project with Docker containerization, development and production configurations, and verified the build.
+
+## Files Created
+
+### Backend Configuration
+- **backend/Cargo.toml** - Rust project dependencies
+- **backend/src/main.rs** - Axum server with health/ready endpoints
+- **backend/.env.example** - Environment variable template
+- **backend/defaults.env** - Default environment values
+
+### Docker Configuration
+- **backend/docker/Dockerfile** - Production multi-stage build (Alpine-based)
+- **backend/docker/Dockerfile.dev** - Development build with hot reload
+- **backend/docker-compose.yml** - Production deployment
+- **backend/docker-compose.dev.yml** - Development deployment
+
+### Project Structure
+- **backend/** - Rust backend
+- **mobile/** - React Native (iOS + Android) - to be created
+- **web/** - React web app - to be created
+- **shared/** - Shared TypeScript code - to be created
+- **thoughts/research/** - Research documentation
+
+## Deployment Configuration
+
+### Resource Limits (Homelab)
+- CPU: 1.0 core (limit), 0.25 core (reservation)
+- RAM: 1000MB (limit), 256MB (reservation)
+- MongoDB: 512MB RAM, 0.5 CPU
+
+### Port Configuration
+- Backend API: 6000 (host) → 8000 (container)
+- MongoDB: 27017 (standard port)
+- Future services: 6001-6999 range
+
+### Docker Features
+- Multi-stage build for optimized image size
+- Non-root user (normogen:1000)
+- Health checks (liveness and readiness)
+- Volume persistence for MongoDB
+- Custom bridge network (normogen-network)
+- Hot reload for development
+
+### Reverse Proxy Ready
+- Backend runs HTTP only on port 8000
+- TLS/HTTPS handled by reverse proxy
+- CORS configurable via environment
+
+## Build Verification
+
+```bash
+cd backend
+cargo check
+# Finished dev profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 24.94s
+```
+
+## Dependencies Added
+
+### Core Framework
+- axum 0.7 - Web framework
+- tokio 1.x - Async runtime
+- tower 0.4 - Middleware
+- tower-http 0.5 - HTTP middleware (CORS, trace, limit, decompression)
+
+### Database & Auth
+- mongodb 2.8 - MongoDB driver
+- jsonwebtoken 9 - JWT authentication
+- pbkdf2 0.12 - Password key derivation
+- sha2 0.10 - Hashing
+- rand 0.8 - Random generation
+
+### Serialization & Validation
+- serde 1 - Serialization
+- serde_json 1 - JSON
+- validator 0.16 - Input validation
+
+### Utilities
+- uuid 1 - Unique identifiers
+- chrono 0.4 - Date/time
+- tracing 0.1 - Logging
+- tracing-subscriber 0.3 - Log subscribers
+- dotenv 0.15 - Environment variables
+- anyhow 1 - Error handling
+- thiserror 1 - Error derive
+
+## Health Endpoints
+
+- **GET /health** - Liveness probe
+  ```json
+  {
+    "status": "ok",
+    "timestamp": "2026-02-14T15:29:00Z"
+  }
+  ```
+
+- **GET /ready** - Readiness probe
+  ```json
+  {
+    "status": "ready",
+    "database": "not_connected",
+    "timestamp": "2026-02-14T15:29:00Z"
+  }
+  ```
+
+## Quick Start Commands
+
+### Development
+```bash
+cd backend
+cp .env.example .env
+# Edit .env
+docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d
+docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml logs -f backend
+```
+
+### Production
+```bash
+cd backend
+cp .env.example .env
+openssl rand -base64 32  # Generate JWT secret
+# Edit .env with generated secret
+docker compose build
+docker compose up -d
+curl http://localhost:6000/health
+```
+
+## Next Steps
+
+- **Phase 2.2**: MongoDB connection and models
+- **Phase 2.3**: Configuration management (struct + env loading)
+- **Phase 2.4**: JWT authentication implementation
+- **Phase 2.5**: User registration and login endpoints
+- **Phase 2.6**: Password recovery with recovery phrases
+
+## Repository Ready
+
+The monorepo structure is ready with separate directories:
+- backend/ (Rust)
+- mobile/ (React Native - to be created)
+- web/ (React - to be created)
+- shared/ (TypeScript - to be created)
+
+All platforms will share common code through the shared/ directory.