REST API for the RecipeNest platform — handles authentication, chef profiles, and recipe management.

Built with ASP.NET Core 10, Entity Framework Core 9, and PostgreSQL (hosted on NeonDB).

• Tech Stack
• Project Structure
• Getting Started
• Environment Variables
• API Reference
• Database Schema
• Authentication
• Deployment

RecipeNest.API/
├── Controllers/
│   ├── AuthController.cs       # POST /auth/register, POST /auth/login
│   ├── ChefsController.cs      # GET /chefs, GET /chefs/{id}
│   ├── RecipesController.cs    # Full CRUD /recipes
│   └── ProfileController.cs   # GET/PUT /profile
├── Models/
│   ├── User.cs                 # Auth entity (email + password hash)
│   ├── ChefProfile.cs          # Public chef info (1-to-1 with User)
│   └── Recipe.cs               # Recipe (many-to-1 with ChefProfile)
├── DTOs/
│   ├── AuthDTOs.cs             # RegisterDto, LoginDto, AuthResponseDto
│   ├── ChefDTOs.cs             # ChefListDto, ChefDetailDto, UpdateProfileDto
│   └── RecipeDTOs.cs           # RecipeDto, CreateRecipeDto, UpdateRecipeDto
├── Data/
│   └── AppDbContext.cs         # EF Core context + relationships
├── Migrations/                 # EF Core schema history (auto-applied on startup)
├── Dockerfile                  # Multi-stage Docker build for Render
├── Program.cs                  # DI, JWT, CORS, EF, PORT binding
└── appsettings.json            # Base config (override via env vars in prod)

• .NET 10 SDK

cd RecipeNest.API
dotnet restore
dotnet run

The API starts at http://localhost:5000.
EF Core migrations are applied automatically on startup — tables are created on first run.

Configuration is read from appsettings.json and overridden by environment variables.
In production (Render), set these as secret environment variables:

appsettings.json already contains safe defaults for local development.

All endpoints are prefixed with /api.

Login response:

{
  "token": "<jwt>",
  "chefId": 1,
  "name": "Gordon Ramsay",
  "email": "gordon@example.com",
  "avatarUrl": "/avatars/chef1.png"
}

Recipe body (create / update):

{
  "title": "Beef Wellington",
  "description": "Classic British dish...",
  "ingredients": "Beef tenderloin, puff pastry...",
  "instructions": "1. Sear the beef...",
  "imageUrl": "https://example.com/image.jpg"
}

User (1) ──────── (1) ChefProfile (1) ──────── (Many) Recipe

Cascade delete is configured: removing a User deletes their ChefProfile and all associated Recipe rows.

1. Client POST /api/auth/login with email + password
2. Server verifies the BCrypt hash and issues a signed JWT (7-day expiry)
3. JWT claims: userId, email, chefId
4. Client stores the token in localStorage and sends it as Authorization: Bearer <token> on protected requests
5. ASP.NET Core's [Authorize] attribute validates the token on every protected endpoint

The API is deployed to Render using Docker.

1. Push the repo to GitHub
2. Create a Web Service on Render, connect the repo, and select the recipenest-api service from render.yaml
3. Add the secret environment variables listed above in the Render dashboard
4. Deploy — Render builds the Docker image and starts the container

The Dockerfile uses a multi-stage build:

• Build stage — mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:10.0 compiles and publishes the app
• Runtime stage — mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0 runs the published output (smaller final image)