The Node.js Realtime Chat App is a lightweight, fast, and fully interactive messaging platform built to demonstrate how real‑time communication works on the modern web. It uses a clean backend architecture powered by Node.js and Express, combined with Socket.IO to deliver instant, bidirectional communication between clients. The project is designed to be simple enough for beginners to understand, yet structured well enough to extend into a production‑grade chat system.
Tech Stack
- Node.js
- Express
- Socket.IO
- MongoDB
- Mongoose
- Zod
Getting Started
- Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/kejiahp/nodejs-realtime-chatapp
cd nodejs-realtime-chatapp- Install dependencies
npm install
- Configure environment variables
Use the envconfig/custom-environment-variables.ts object to structure environment variables
-Start the server
npm start
The server should be running on http://localhost:8000 or your configured port.