LendSphere

Open-source peer-to-peer lending platform — connecting borrowers and investors directly.

LendSphere is a full-stack web application that lets borrowers post loan requests and investors fund them — no bank in the middle. It is built with a Rails 7 API backend, a React frontend, and a PostgreSQL database.

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Table of Contents

• Features
• Tech Stack
• Data Model
• API Reference
• Getting Started
• Environment Variables
• Deployment
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• License

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Features

Feature	Status
User registration & login (session-based auth)	✅
Loan requests (create, browse, update, delete)	✅
Investment flow — fund any open loan	✅
Loan status workflow — pending → funded → active → repaid / defaulted	✅
Payment tracking — schedule, record, and mark payments as paid	✅
Loan filtering & search — by status, amount range, rate, term	✅
Email notifications — status changes, new investments, payment reminders	✅
User profile — edit details, delete account	✅
Dashboard & status board	✅
Loan calculator	✅
Stripe payment integration	🔲 stretch goal
Google Maps address verification	🔲 stretch goal

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 17, React Router 5, React Bootstrap
Backend	Ruby on Rails 7 (API mode)
Database	PostgreSQL
Auth	has_secure_password + cookie-based sessions
Email	ActionMailer (SMTP-configurable)
Deployment	Render

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Data Model

users
  id, email, password_digest, name, date_of_birth, address

loans
  id, borrower_id → users, title, description,
  amount, interest_rate, term_length,
  status (pending | funded | active | repaid | defaulted)

investors
  id, lender_id → users, loan_id → loans,
  investment_amount, interest_rate, status

payments
  id, loan_id → loans, payer_id → users,
  amount, scheduled_date, paid_date, status (scheduled | paid | overdue)

Loan Status Transitions

pending ──► funded ──► active ──► repaid
   │            │         │
   └────────────┴─────────┴──► defaulted

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API Reference

Auth

Method	Path	Description
POST	/signup	Register a new user
POST	/login	Log in
DELETE	/logout	Log out
GET	/me	Return the current session user

Users

Method	Path	Description
GET	/users	List all users
GET	/users/:id	Show a user
PATCH	/users/:id	Update a user
DELETE	/users/:id	Delete a user
GET	/users/:id/loans	Loans belonging to a user
GET	/users/:id/investors	Investments belonging to a user

Loans

Method	Path	Description
GET	/loans	List loans (supports ?status=, ?min_amount=, ?max_amount=, ?min_rate=, ?max_rate=, ?term_length=)
POST	/loans	Create a loan
GET	/loans/:id	Show a loan
PATCH	/loans/:id	Update a loan
DELETE	/loans/:id	Delete a loan
PATCH	/loans/:id/transition	Transition loan status ({ status: "funded" })

Payments

Method	Path	Description
GET	/loans/:loan_id/payments	List payments for a loan
POST	/loans/:loan_id/payments	Schedule a payment
GET	/loans/:loan_id/payments/:id	Show a payment
PATCH	/loans/:loan_id/payments/:id	Update a payment (e.g. mark paid)
DELETE	/loans/:loan_id/payments/:id	Delete a payment

Investors

Method	Path	Description
GET	/investors	List all investments
POST	/investors	Create an investment
GET	/investors/:id	Show an investment
PATCH	/investors/:id	Update an investment
DELETE	/investors/:id	Delete an investment

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Ruby 3.x
• Rails 7.x (gem install rails)
• Node 16+
• PostgreSQL 14+

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/lendsphere.git
cd lendsphere

2. Backend setup

bundle install
rails db:create db:migrate db:seed
rails s -p 3000

The Rails API will be available at http://localhost:3000.

3. Frontend setup

cd client
npm install
npm start

The React app will be available at http://localhost:4000 and proxies API calls to port 3000.

4. Email (optional, development)

To preview emails locally, add this to config/environments/development.rb:

config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :letter_opener
config.action_mailer.perform_deliveries = true

Then add the letter_opener gem to your Gemfile.

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Environment Variables

Variable	Description
DATABASE_URL	Full PostgreSQL connection URL (production)
LENDSPHERE_DATABASE_PASSWORD	DB password (production)
RAILS_MASTER_KEY	Decrypts config/credentials.yml.enc
RAILS_LOG_TO_STDOUT	Set to true on Render / Heroku
RAILS_SERVE_STATIC_FILES	Set to true to serve the React build
SMTP_HOST	SMTP server host for ActionMailer
SMTP_PORT	SMTP server port
SMTP_USER	SMTP username
SMTP_PASSWORD	SMTP password

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Deployment

LendSphere is configured for Render.

1. Set all environment variables in Render's dashboard.
2. Build command: bundle install && rails db:migrate && cd client && npm install && npm run build
3. Start command: bundle exec puma -C config/puma.rb

Live demo: https://lendsphere.onrender.com

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Roadmap

• Stripe payment integration
• Google Maps address verification
• Real-time chat between borrower and investor (Action Cable)
• Secondary market — sell investments to other investors
• Machine learning credit scoring
• Mobile app (React Native)
• Multi-currency support

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md first.

1. Fork the repo
2. Create your branch: git checkout -b feature/my-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m 'Add my feature'
4. Push: git push origin feature/my-feature
5. Open a Pull Request

Please follow the Code of Conduct.

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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Built with care by Shraddha Rao