VLG Tracker

Internal Asana-style project & task tracker (projects, tasks, subtasks, Kanban board, status updates, My Tasks, notifications). Google login gated by an allowlist you manage in-app. Next.js 16 · Auth.js v5 · Neon Postgres · Drizzle.

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Deploy to Vercel

Accounts you need (all free tier)

1. GitHub — hosts the code. (github.com)
2. Vercel — hosting; sign in with GitHub. (vercel.com)
3. Neon — the Postgres database. (neon.tech)
4. Google Cloud — for Google sign-in. (console.cloud.google.com)

Steps

1. Push this repo to GitHub (create an empty repo, then):

git remote add origin https://github.com/<you>/vlg-tracker.git
git push -u origin main

2. Create the Neon database. In Neon, create a project and copy two connection strings from the dashboard:

• the Pooled one (host has -pooler) → used as DATABASE_URL
• the Direct one → used as DIRECT_URL

3. Create Google sign-in credentials. In Google Cloud → APIs & Services → Credentials → Create OAuth client ID → Web application. Under Authorized redirect URIs add (use your real Vercel domain — you can fill this in after step 4 and edit it):

https://<your-app>.vercel.app/api/auth/callback/google

Copy the Client ID and Client secret.

4. Import the repo in Vercel (Add New → Project → pick the GitHub repo). Before deploying, set:

• Build Command (Settings → General): npm run db:migrate && npm run db:seed && next build (auto-applies the database schema and seeds the first admin on every deploy)

• Environment Variables (Settings → Environment Variables):

  Name	Value
  AUTH_SECRET	a random secret — run openssl rand -base64 32
  AUTH_GOOGLE_ID	Google Client ID (step 3)
  AUTH_GOOGLE_SECRET	Google Client secret (step 3)
  AUTH_TRUST_HOST	true
  DATABASE_URL	Neon pooled string (step 2)
  DIRECT_URL	Neon direct string (step 2)
  BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_EMAIL	first admin email (default vlg.acm@iitr.ac.in)
  RESEND_API_KEY	(optional) set to also email project status updates (resend.com)
  EMAIL_FROM	(optional) from-address, e.g. VLG Tracker <updates@yourdomain>
  SLACK_BOT_TOKEN	(optional) Slack bot token (xoxb-…) — see Slack section below
  CRON_SECRET	(optional) guards the reminders cron; openssl rand -hex 16

5. Deploy. When it's live, make sure the Google redirect URI (step 3) matches your real Vercel domain, then open the site and sign in with the bootstrap admin's Google account. Go to Admin in the sidebar to add teammates.

That's it — every future git push redeploys and applies new migrations automatically.

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Run locally (optional)

export PATH="$HOME/.local/node/bin:$PATH"   # Node is at ~/.local/node
cp .env.example .env.local                  # fill in the same vars as above
npm install
npm run db:migrate && npm run db:seed
npm run dev                                  # http://localhost:3000

Add http://localhost:3000/api/auth/callback/google as a redirect URI in Google Cloud for local sign-in. See CLAUDE.md for architecture notes.

Self-hosting on an on-prem / admin-provisioned server

The app isn't tied to Neon. To run the whole thing on your own server against a standard Postgres:

1. Point DATABASE_URL and DIRECT_URL at your Postgres instance.
2. Set DB_DRIVER=pg (switches the driver from Neon's WebSocket driver to a normal TCP Postgres connection).
3. npm run db:migrate && npm run db:seed, then npm run build && npm start behind your reverse proxy. Add that host's /api/auth/callback/google to the Google OAuth redirect URIs, and keep the other env vars the same.

The schema and migrations are plain Postgres, so no code changes are needed.

Slack notifications & reminders (optional, free)

Powers: posting project status updates to a channel, and daily discussion / meeting / "post your updates" reminders. Slack apps + the Web API are free.

Create the bot (one-time):

1. https://api.slack.com/apps → Create New App → From scratch → pick your workspace.
2. OAuth & Permissions → Bot Token Scopes → add chat:write.
3. Install to Workspace, then copy the Bot User OAuth Token (xoxb-…) → set it as SLACK_BOT_TOKEN (Vercel env + local .env).
4. Invite the bot to each channel it should post in: in Slack, run /invite @your-bot in that channel.

Wire it up in the app:

• Members: each person opens Settings and pastes their Slack member ID (Slack → your profile → ⋯ → Copy member ID) so reminders can @-mention them.
• Admin → Integrations: set the reminders channel ID (for discussions/meetings).
• Per project → ⋯ → Slack & reminders: set that project's channel ID (status updates post there) and optional daily "post your updates" reminders.
• Get a channel ID from Slack → channel name → View channel details → bottom.

Reminders schedule: vercel.json runs /api/cron/reminders daily at 15:30 UTC (9 PM IST). Set CRON_SECRET in Vercel env; Vercel sends it to the job automatically. (Vercel Hobby allows one daily cron — this fits.)

Docs images need no external storage — they're resized and stored in the DB, and cleaned up when removed.