Remove .github from gitignore, add checks, configure Dependabot for automated dependency updates, and add branch protection

[jeninh]

No description provided.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This pull request sets up GitHub Actions CI/CD infrastructure for the project by removing .github from .gitignore, adding a comprehensive CI workflow with linting, security scanning, building, Docker builds, and testing, configuring Dependabot for automated dependency updates across npm packages (backend and client), Docker images, and GitHub Actions, and enabling branch protection through the workflow checks.

Changes:

• Removes .github from .gitignore to allow GitHub configuration files to be tracked
• Adds CI workflow with 5 jobs: lint-and-format, security, build, docker, and test
• Configures Dependabot for automated dependency updates across multiple ecosystems

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
.gitignore	Removes .github directory from gitignore to track GitHub configuration
.github/workflows/ci.yml	Adds comprehensive CI workflow with linting, security scanning, building, testing, and Docker builds
.github/dependabot.yml	Configures automated dependency updates for npm (backend/client), Docker, and GitHub Actions

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