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

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

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

  {
    "status": "ok",
    "timestamp": "2026-02-14T15:29:00Z"
  }
  

• GET /ready - Readiness probe

  {
    "status": "ready",
    "database": "not_connected",
    "timestamp": "2026-02-14T15:29:00Z"
  }
  

Quick Start Commands

Development

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

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.