PartLens

About

PartLens is an documentation platform mainly aimed at documenting 3d machine diagrams by uploading manuals. 3D glb file of machine is uploaded into the system, then you can upload manuals/pdfs for a specific part in that machine.

Our system allows you to click on a machine part and inside the 3D render icon and it would automatically select it.

Techstack

Nextjs, with an express backend. Postgresql for storing data with drizzle. And redis to store certain values for fast access with expiry + caching and ratelimiting.

Api Docs

Api docs are available here

Deploying

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+ and npm
• PostgreSQL database (POSTGRES_URL)
• Redis instance (REDIS_URL)
• ImageKit account (IMAGEKIT_PUBLIC_KEY, IMAGEKIT_PRIVATE_KEY, IMAGEKIT_URL_ENDPOINT)
• Google OAuth client (GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID, GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET)

Services run locally on:

• Backend: http://localhost:5050
• Frontend: http://localhost:3000

1. Backend setup

cd backend
npm install
cp .env.example .env

Fill in .env (see backend/.env.example and backend/api_docs.md for details):

POSTGRES_URL=
REDIS_URL=
REDIS_PREFIX=
ADMIN_KEY=
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3000
BACKEND_URL=http://localhost:5050
IMAGEKIT_PUBLIC_KEY=
IMAGEKIT_PRIVATE_KEY=
IMAGEKIT_URL_ENDPOINT=
PORT=5050
NODE_ENV=development

In the Google Cloud Console, add this OAuth redirect URI:

http://localhost:5050/api/v1/auth/google/callback

Then apply migrations and start the dev server (auto-applies migrations on boot, port 5050):

npm run db:migrate
npm run dev

Verify: GET http://localhost:5050/status

Other backend commands:

npm run build   # compile TypeScript to dist/
npm start       # run compiled server (production)
npm run db:generate  # generate a migration from schema changes
npm run db:push      # push schema directly (dev only)

2. Frontend setup

The frontend uses hardcoded URLs in frontend/src/vars/vars.tsx:

BACKEND_URL: 'http://localhost:5050'
FRONTEND_URL: 'http://localhost:3000'

For local development the defaults work as-is. For production, update both values to your deployed URLs before building.

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

Development startup order

1. Start PostgreSQL and Redis.
2. Start backend (cd backend && npm run dev).
3. Start frontend (cd frontend && npm run dev).

Production deployment

1. Provision managed PostgreSQL and Redis, plus ImageKit and Google OAuth credentials.
2. Set backend environment variables with production values: NODE_ENV=production, public FRONTEND_URL / BACKEND_URL, real POSTGRES_URL, REDIS_URL, ImageKit and Google keys, strong ADMIN_KEY. The backend sets trust proxy automatically when NODE_ENV=production.
3. Add the production OAuth redirect URI in Google Cloud Console: https://<your-backend>/api/v1/auth/google/callback
4. Deploy backend:

   cd backend
   npm install
   npm run build
   npm run db:migrate
   npm start

5. Deploy frontend: update frontend/src/vars/vars.tsx to your public BACKEND_URL / FRONTEND_URL, then:

   cd frontend
   npm install
   npm run build
   npm start

   Or host the frontend on Vercel/another Node host serving next start on port 3000.
6. Verify production: GET https://<your-backend>/status and load the frontend URL, then test Google login and a GLB/PDF upload.

Contributing

Got any contributions? Please open a pull request.

Images