Chess Monorepo

Backend-first chess project with:

• A TypeScript/Express API (apps/server)
• A Rust chess engine exposed to Node via napi-rs (packages/engine)
• SQL bootstrap scripts (database)

Current Project Status

As of March 5, 2026, the project is in a solid technical foundation phase:

• API structure has been cleaned for maintainability (typed config, centralized errors, startup bootstrap).
• Database connectivity and module boundaries are production-oriented.
• Rust engine exposes core chess validation/status functions and includes unit tests.
• Repository is now prepared for public hosting hygiene (.gitignore, env example, root docs).

Repository Structure

.
|-- apps/
|   `-- server/         # Express API (TypeScript)
|   `-- web/            # Next UI (TypeScript)
|-- packages/
|   `-- engine/         # Rust + napi-rs chess engine
|-- database/
|   `-- test.sql        # Example schema/seed - (tests)
`-- README.md

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• npm 10+ (or compatible)
• PostgreSQL 14+
• Rust toolchain (for local native engine builds)

Quick Start

1. API setup

cd apps/server
npm install
cp .env.example .env

Update .env with your PostgreSQL credentials.

2. Initialize database sample data

Run the SQL in database/test.sql against your PostgreSQL instance.

3. Run the API in development

cd apps/server
npm run dev

Default endpoints:

• GET /
• GET /health
• GET /api/test

4. Build and run API in production mode

cd apps/server
npm run build
npm start

Engine Package

Local development commands:

cd packages/engine
yarn install
yarn build
yarn test

The Rust engine currently exports:

• validateAndMove(fen, uciMoveStr)
• getGameStatus(fen)

Quality and Professionalization Checklist

• x Clean server startup separation (app vs server)
• x Centralized environment validation
• x Typed database access and route flow
• x Centralized error handling and 404 handling
• x Public-repo safe ignore rules and env template
• - CI pipeline (recommended next)
• - API tests/integration tests (recommended next)
• - Issue/PR templates and contribution guide (recommended next)

Prepare and Push to GitHub

From the repository root:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "chore: clean architecture, docs, and github prep"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/<your-user>/<your-repo>.git
git push -u origin main

If you already created a remote repo with a README, use git pull --rebase origin main before pushing.