Linqyard

This repository contains a small monorepo for the Linqyard project: a .NET 9 API and a Next.js frontend. This README explains how to get the project running locally for development and production-style Docker runs.

What's in this repo

• backend_dotnet/ - .NET 9 API (Linqyard.Api and related projects)
• frontend_nextjs/ - Next.js frontend app
• docker-compose.yml - Production-ish Compose file (build images and expose ports)
• docker-compose.override.yml / docker-compose.override.example.yml - Development overrides with bind mounts and hot reload

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose (Desktop or Engine)
• Node.js 18+ and npm (for running frontend locally without Docker)
• .NET 9 SDK (if you want to run the .NET backend locally without Docker)

Notes for Windows: run Docker Desktop and ensure Docker can bind to the required ports. When running the frontend in Docker, host.docker.internal is used to reach the host services (e.g. the .NET API mapped on host port 5000).

Ports (defaults)

• .NET API (inside container): 8080 -> Host: 5000
• Next.js frontend: 3000 -> Host: 3000

Quickstart — Docker (recommended for most contributors)

This uses the top-level docker-compose.yml. For development you can use the override which mounts local source and enables hot reload.

1. Copy or create a .env file at the repo root (Docker Compose references .env). The repository includes examples for env usage in compose; fill any required values.

2. Start services (build images then run):

# Build and start all services in foreground
docker compose up --build

# Or run in detached mode
docker compose up --build -d

3. Visit the apps in your browser:

• Frontend: http://localhost:3000
• .NET API: http://localhost:5000

To stop and remove containers created by Compose:

docker compose down

Development with hot-reload (compose override)

The project includes docker-compose.override.yml which is intended for development. It bind-mounts local source into the containers and runs dotnet watch and the Next.js dev server.

To use it (Compose automatically picks up docker-compose.override.yml):

docker compose up --build

Behavior in the override:

• .NET service runs dotnet watch run and is reachable at http://localhost:5000
• Next.js runs npm run dev and is reachable at http://localhost:3000; it is configured to call the backend via NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL=http://host.docker.internal:5000 by default in the override

Run services individually (local, without Docker)

.NET API

If you prefer to run the .NET API locally (recommended to have .NET SDK installed):

cd backend_dotnet/Linqyard.Api
dotnet restore
dotnet watch run --urls "http://0.0.0.0:8080"

Then open http://localhost:5000 (if you prefer the same host port mapping as Docker, run the process behind a reverse proxy or adjust your local call to port 8080).

Next.js frontend

From frontend_nextjs/:

cd frontend_nextjs
npm install
npm run dev

By default the app runs on http://localhost:3000. If the frontend needs to talk to the backend running on your host, set NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL accordingly (for example http://localhost:5000 or http://localhost:8080).

Environment variables

• Compose files reference a top-level .env file. Create one with any secrets or variables needed by services.
• The Next.js app reads NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL to target the API.

Logs and persistence

• The docker-compose.yml and override mount ./logs/dotnet to persist .NET logs locally. Check logs/dotnet in the repo for container logs if enabled.

Useful commands

# Build images only
docker compose build

# Recreate a single service
docker compose up -d --no-deps --build nextjs

# View container logs (tail)
docker compose logs -f

# Run a one-off shell in a service
docker compose run --rm nextjs sh

Migrations

Add migration

dotnet ef migrations add "Initial Rebase" --project Linqyard.Data --startup-project Linqyard.Api

Update Database

dotnet ef database update --project Linqyard.Data --startup-project Linqyard.Api

Troubleshooting

• If ports are in use, confirm no other local service is bound to 3000 or 5000.
• On Windows, if Docker tooling has networking issues, restart Docker Desktop.
• If Next.js can't reach the API from inside Docker, check the NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL (use host.docker.internal for host access from Linux/Windows/Mac Docker Desktop).

Next steps / Contributions

• Add a .env.example with the minimal environment variables your team expects.
• Consider adding service health endpoints and docker-compose healthchecks for better orchestration.

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Generated: initial setup guide (automatically created).