A social media platform for sharing recipes and food-related content.

This repository contains two main parts:

• backend/ — Express API server (Node.js + Express + MongoDB + Firebase Admin)
• app/ — Expo React Native app (mobile + web)

This README explains how to install, configure, and run the project locally.

1. Clone the repo and open the project root:

    ```powershell
    # change to the path where you cloned the repository
    cd "<path-to-cloned-repo>/potluck"
    ```
   

2. Backend: install dependencies and start in dev mode (uses nodemon):

   cd backend
   npm install
   # requires a .env with MONGODB_URI and optionally PORT
   npm run dev

3. App (Expo): install and start the client (web/mobile):

   cd ..\app\potluck
   npm install
   npx expo start --web --clear    

• Node.js (v16+ recommended)
• npm or yarn
• MongoDB URI (Atlas or local)
• Firebase project for authentication/storage

• Backend environment variables: Create a .env file in backend/ with at least:

   MONGODB_URI=<your-mongodb-connection-string>
   PORT=5000
  

• Firebase (backend): place your Firebase service account JSON at backend/config/firebase-serviceAccountKey.json. The backend imports it from backend/config/firebase.js.

Feel free to open issues or PRs. For small changes, follow this flow locally:

1. Create a branch from main.
2. Make changes and run the app/backend locally to verify.
3. Open a PR with a short description of the change.