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SkillSync uses environment variables to keep sensitive credentials out of source code. All secrets — database URIs, API tokens, SMTP passwords, and cron secrets — are read from .env files at runtime and must be configured before starting the server.
Never commit .env files to version control. Ensure backend/.env and frontend/.env are listed in your .gitignore. Exposing these values publicly will compromise your database, email account, and cron security.

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Backend environment variables

Create a file named .env inside the backend/ directory and populate it with the variables below.
VariableRequiredDescription
PORTNo (default 5000)Port the Express server listens on
MONGO_URIYesMongoDB connection string (e.g., from MongoDB Atlas)
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URLYesUpstash Redis REST endpoint URL
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKENYesUpstash Redis REST token
BREVO_USERYesBrevo SMTP username (your Brevo account email)
BREVO_PASSYesBrevo SMTP password (API key from Brevo dashboard)
EMAIL_USERYesSender email address shown in outbound reminder emails
CRON_SECRETYesSecret token used to authenticate POST /cron/sync requests from cron-job.org

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Sample backend .env

PORT=5000
MONGO_URI=mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@cluster0.mongodb.net/skillsync?retryWrites=true&w=majority
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL=https://<your-upstash-endpoint>.upstash.io
UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN=your_upstash_rest_token_here
BREVO_USER=your.brevo.account@example.com
BREVO_PASS=your_brevo_smtp_api_key
EMAIL_USER=noreply@yourdomain.com
CRON_SECRET=a-long-random-secret-string-you-choose

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Frontend environment variables

Create a file named .env inside the frontend/ directory and populate it with the variable below.
VariableRequiredDescription
VITE_API_BASE_URLYesFull URL of the backend API (e.g., http://localhost:5000 for local, or your Render URL for production)

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Sample frontend .env

VITE_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000
Vite only exposes environment variables prefixed with VITE_ to browser code. Any variable without this prefix is stripped from the client bundle and will be undefined at runtime.

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