CoinTracker

CoinTracker now ships with a lightweight Node.js + Express backend that powers the prototype for scanning and cataloging a foreign coin and banknote collection. The docs/app_design.md document still captures the long-term product vision, while this repository provides a working REST API you can run locally.

Features

• ✅ Express REST API with CRUD, export, and recognition endpoints for your collection.
• ✅ JSON persistence powered by lowdb so the project runs without native build tools.
• ✅ Deterministic recognition stub so you can prototype camera-driven workflows.
• ✅ Vitest + Supertest coverage that exercises the health check, CRUD lifecycle, and recognition placeholder.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (the LTS release works great on Windows, macOS, and Linux).
• npm (installed with Node). Yarn or pnpm will also work if you prefer an alternative package manager.

Setup & Run

1. Install dependencies:

   npm install

2. Start the API server:

   npm start

   The service listens on http://127.0.0.1:8000 by default. Pass PORT=9000 (or any other port) when launching to override.

3. Explore the endpoints with your favorite HTTP client. Useful routes:

   • GET /health – quick health probe.
   • GET /items – list your collection.
   • POST /items – create a new entry (name, country, and denomination are required).
   • PATCH /items/{id} – update an item.
   • DELETE /items/{id} – remove an item when it leaves your collection.
   • GET /items/{id}/export – fetch a shareable summary payload.
   • POST /recognize – prototype vision endpoint that returns deterministic sample data.

   Records are stored in cointracker.json in the repository root. Delete the file at any time to start fresh.

Windows quickstart

# From a PowerShell prompt in the repository root
npm install
npm start

Use Ctrl+C to stop the server.

Running Tests

npm test

Vitest spins up the Express app against an in-memory lowdb adapter so the suite runs quickly without touching your real data file.