Manipal OSF website

The official Manipal OSF website is a single Next.js application at the repository root. It uses TypeScript, React, Tailwind CSS, and the App Router. Blog posts live in the repository as Markdown files.

Development

Use Node.js 24 LTS (minimum 22) and PNPM 11.2.2. Run commands from the repository root:

pnpm install
pnpm dev

Open http://localhost:3000. No environment variables or separate service are required for the existing site; an optional GITHUB_TOKEN raises the GitHub API limit for the home page statistics.

Development and production builds use Turbopack.

pnpm typecheck
pnpm lint
pnpm format

CI runs the production build with pnpm build. A deployed Node.js application starts with pnpm start. Configure hosting to use the repository root, with pnpm install --frozen-lockfile as the install command and pnpm build as the build command.

See website configuration for the Markdown format, images, and publishing instructions. The blog initially displays “No posts yet.” Add your own content to content/posts/; existing hosted content is not copied automatically.

The @next/mdx component registry lives in mdx-components.tsx at the repository root, beside app/, as required by Next.js. Keep it there when adding MDX components. The filesystem blog continues to render Markdown using MarkdownRenderer.

UI components

shadcn/ui is configured with the Base UI Nova style, TypeScript, React Server Components, Lucide icons, and the @/* import alias pointing to the repository root. Its CSS variables extend the existing Nord light and Catppuccin dark themes, using the existing data-theme switch.

Import the initial Button from @/components/ui/button and shared class helpers from @/lib/utils. Add more components from the repository root:

pnpm exec shadcn add input

components.json points to styles/globals.css; Tailwind v4 does not need a separate Tailwind configuration file. Keep the existing palettes and data-theme convention when adding theme tokens.

Environment variables

The public site runs without service credentials. When preparing backend features, copy the example file:

cp .env.example .env.local

lib/env.ts uses T3 Env and Zod to validate settings during development and builds. Service settings are optional, and blank values are treated as unset. Values supplied must be valid. Import env from @/lib/env in server code instead of reading process.env directly. All settings below are server variables; do not expose credentials using NEXT_PUBLIC_.

Variable	Purpose
DATABASE_URL	Neon PostgreSQL connection string (postgres:// or postgresql://).
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET	Future auth secret of at least 32 characters; generate with openssl rand -base64 32.
BETTER_AUTH_URL	Future auth server origin, such as http://localhost:3000.
RESEND_API_KEY	API key required when calling getResend().
RESEND_FROM_EMAIL	Plain sender email address on a Resend-verified domain, for future sending features.

Real .env* files are ignored by Git; .env.example contains no credentials and is tracked.

Database and authentication

Drizzle ORM, Drizzle Kit, the Neon serverless driver, Better Auth, and its Drizzle adapter are installed for later use. Database clients, application/auth schemas, migrations, auth routes, and login pages are deferred. The blog still uses repository Markdown files.

When implementing these features, configure a Neon PostgreSQL database with the validated DATABASE_URL, use drizzle-orm/neon-http for HTTP queries (or drizzle-orm/neon-serverless when interactive transactions are needed), and connect Better Auth through @better-auth/drizzle-adapter with PostgreSQL provider pg. Generate the auth schema from the final auth configuration before creating Drizzle migrations. Add the auth Route Handler under app/api/auth/[...all]/route.ts and keep client auth code separate from server credentials.

Drizzle Kit runs outside the Next.js runtime. Before adding its configuration, use @next/env to load the root .env* files so CLI commands follow the same environment loading rules as Next.js.

Email templates

Resend and React Email are ready for future email features. Components and rendering utilities use the current react-email package; @react-email/ui provides local previews.

pnpm email:dev

Open http://localhost:3001 to preview emails/example.tsx. Previews need no API key and send no email.

Server code can import getResend from @/lib/resend to obtain a lazily initialized Resend client. It throws a clear error if RESEND_API_KEY is unset when called. When adding a sending feature, pass a verified sender, recipient, subject, and React Email template to getResend().emails.send(...), and handle the returned error. There are no sending endpoints or automatic email triggers yet.

Server features

Add server endpoints as Route Handlers in app/**/route.ts, using the Web Request and Response APIs or Next.js NextRequest and NextResponse. Keep private environment variables server-side and put reusable server logic in lib/. Async Server Components, post metadata, and generateStaticParams call the server-only filesystem blog loader directly; it does not make HTTP calls.

Use a deployment that supports the Next.js Node.js runtime when adding Route Handlers or request-time server rendering.

Contributing

React, Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and basic HTML knowledge are useful. Contributions to content and bug reports are welcome too.