📚 Chaptered
A social reading platform to track books, build habits, and connect through book clubs.
🚀 Live Demo: Coming Soon 📖 Docs: TECHNICAL_PLAN.md
🌟 What is Chaptered?
Chaptered is a full-stack web application designed to make reading more engaging, social, and consistent.
It combines:
📖 Personal reading tracking 👥 Book clubs & discussions 📊 Reading analytics
Built as a 7-day MVP, it showcases scalable architecture, real-time features, and modern dev practices using React, Node.js, and MongoDB.
🧩 Features ✅ Current (MVP - Phase 1)
🔐 Authentication
JWT-based login/signup Secure password hashing Persistent sessions
📖 Reading Tracker
Add books (manual + Google Books API) Track reading sessions (pages + time) Reading streaks & stats
📊 Dashboard
Active books overview Weekly reading insights Quick session logging
🔍 Book Discovery
Search via Google Books API One-click add Manual entry support
👥 Book Clubs
Create/join clubs Invite via code Track member progress
💬 Real-Time Chat
Socket.io powered messaging Persistent history Timestamps
🗳️ Book Voting
Suggest books Vote within clubs Auto-select winning book 🚧 Upcoming (Phase 2) 💳 Stripe-based premium tier 🤖 AI Reading Coach 🎯 Personalized recommendations 🧠 Spoiler-free discussions 🔮 Future Vision (Phase 3+) 📱 Mobile app (React Native) 📞 Video book club meetings 🔔 Push notifications 🏆 Reading challenges & badges 🛠️ Tech Stack Frontend React 18 + TypeScript Vite Tailwind CSS Zustand React Router Axios Socket.io Client Backend Node.js + Express TypeScript MongoDB + Mongoose JWT Auth Socket.io DevOps Vercel (Frontend) Railway / Heroku (Backend) MongoDB Atlas 📁 Project Structure chaptered/ ├── chaptered-web/ # React frontend ├── chaptered-api/ # Node.js backend └── README.md 🚀 Getting Started
- Clone Repo git clone https://github.com/yourusername/chaptered.git cd chaptered
- Setup Frontend cd chaptered-web npm install npm run dev
- Setup Backend cd chaptered-api npm install npm run dev
- Environment Variables
Backend .env
PORT=5000 MONGODB_URI=your_mongodb_uri JWT_SECRET=your_secret FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:5173
Frontend .env.local
VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:5000/api 📡 API Overview Method Endpoint Description POST /auth/signup Register user POST /auth/login Login GET /auth/me Current user GET /books Get books POST /books Add book POST /books/:id/sessions Log session
👉 Full API: TECHNICAL_PLAN.md
🔐 Authentication Flow User logs in/signup Backend returns JWT Token stored in frontend Sent via Authorization: Bearer Middleware verifies requests 🧪 Testing Backend curl http://localhost:5000/api/health Frontend Test signup/login Verify dashboard loads Check API calls in DevTools 🚀 Deployment Frontend (Vercel) Connect repo Set VITE_API_URL Deploy Backend (Railway) Add environment variables Deploy via GitHub 🤝 Contributing
We welcome contributions!
Steps git checkout -b feature/your-feature git commit -m "feat: add new feature" git push origin feature/your-feature
Then open a Pull Request 🚀
Contribution Guidelines:
- Use TypeScript
- Follow existing structure
- Keep functions small
- Write clear commit messages
🐛 Issues & Support Open an issue for bugs Use discussions for ideas Include reproduction steps
MIT License
👩💻 Maintainer
Vanshika Sharma Open to collaborations and contributions!
💡 Why This Project Matters
Chaptered isn’t just a tracker. It’s trying to turn reading from a solo habit into a shared experience. Less “books gathering dust,” more “stories sparking conversations.”