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A full-stack Kanban-style task management app. Built primarily to strengthen React fundamentals, deepen understanding of how JWTs work end-to-end, and lay the groundwork for real-time peer-to-peer collaboration via WebSockets.

Goals

• React fundamentals — practice component architecture, state management with Context API, hooks, and routing
• JWT authentication — implement the full auth flow: registration, login, token signing, storage, and protected routes
• WebSockets (planned) — add live collaboration so multiple users can see board updates in real time

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 19 + TypeScript, Vite, React Router
Backend	Ruby on Rails 8 (API-only)
Database	PostgreSQL
Auth	JWT + bcrypt
Testing	Vitest + Testing Library (FE), RSpec (BE)

Features

• User registration and login with JWT authentication
• Kanban board with four columns: Backlog, Todo, In Progress, Completed
• CRUD operations for tasks
• Drag tasks between columns to update their state
• Tokens expire after 15 minutes

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Ruby 3.4.x
• Node.js 18+
• PostgreSQL

Backend

cd backend
bundle install
bin/rails db:create db:migrate
bin/rails server
# API available at http://localhost:3000

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev
# App available at http://localhost:5173

Create a frontend/.env.local file if you need to override the API URL:

VITE_BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000

API Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
POST	/api/v1/register	Register a new user
POST	/api/v1/login	Login and receive a JWT
GET	/tasks	List all tasks
POST	/tasks	Create a task
PATCH	/tasks/:id	Update a task
DELETE	/tasks/:id	Delete a task

Running Tests

# Backend
cd backend && bundle exec rspec

# Frontend
cd frontend && npm run test

Roadmap

• WebSocket integration for real-time board sync
• Peer-to-peer live collaboration (multiple users editing simultaneously)
• Refresh token flow

Learnings

JWTs

• Session based auth is generally superior to JWTs on web because they are tried and true and are simpler.
• Frameworks usually have Session based auth out of the box whereas JWTs need to be implemented manually or through a library.
• JWTs are great for mobile apps or third party APIs