Aetherion

Aetherion is a full-stack, real-time messaging application focused on fast conversations, reliable message persistence, and a polished chat experience.

Features

• Real-time messaging powered by Socket.IO
• User accounts and authenticated sessions
• Conversation and chat-list workflows
• Share images, GIFs, videos, and documents
• Reply to individual messages
• Emoji picker and expressive messaging UI
• Responsive React interface with client-side routing
• Conversation and application state managed through Redux Toolkit / React state stores
• MongoDB-backed persistence through Mongoose
• Cloudinary integration for media handling
• Server-side security controls, including Helmet, request rate limiting, file-type checks, and password hashing

Feature availability can depend on the current environment configuration and external services.

Tech stack

Client

• React 19 + Vite
• React Router
• Tailwind CSS 3
• Redux Toolkit and React Redux
• Socket.IO Client
• Axios
• Lucide React and React Icons
• Recharts for supported visualizations

Server

• Node.js and Express 5
• Socket.IO
• MongoDB and Mongoose
• JWT authentication and bcryptjs
• Cloudinary and Multer
• Helmet, CORS, cookie-parser, and express-rate-limit

Repository layout

Aetherion/
├── client/    # React + Vite frontend
└── server/    # Express API and Socket.IO server

Getting started

Requirements: Node.js, npm, a MongoDB database, and the credentials for any external services enabled in your setup.

Install dependencies in both applications:

git clone https://github.com/PrithwishDas101/Aetherion.git
cd Aetherion

cd server
npm install

cd ../client
npm install

Configure the server environment using the variable names expected by the server's configuration. Set the database connection, authentication secret, client/CORS origin, and any Cloudinary credentials required for media features. Keep secrets in a local environment file and never commit them.

Start the server in one terminal:

cd server
npm run dev

Start the frontend in another terminal:

cd client
npm run dev

The client and server must be configured to point at one another's local URLs. Check the project's environment/configuration files for the exact ports and variable names before running the application.

Available scripts

Directory	Command	Purpose
server/	npm run dev	Start the API with nodemon
server/	npm start	Start the API
client/	npm run dev	Start Vite
client/	npm run build	Build the frontend
client/	npm run lint	Run ESLint
client/	npm run preview	Preview the production build

Security and deployment notes

• Use strong, private secrets for JWT signing and database access.
• Restrict CORS to the intended frontend origins in production.
• Configure the media provider before expecting upload features to work.
• Keep the frontend API/socket URL and server origin settings aligned.
• Do not commit .env files, service credentials, or uploaded user content.

Aetherion is an actively evolving application; verify current environment keys and deployment settings in the source before deploying.

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Built by Prithwish Das.