Golden Hour

Golden Hour is a calm, mobile-first PWA for stepping outside around sunrise and sunset. It uses MongoDB Atlas for subscriber, reminder, and check-in data. Photos stay in the phone's IndexedDB and are never uploaded.

render.yaml defines a Node web service with npm install, node server.js, and a /health check. Render's Blueprint uses sync: false for values that must be entered as secrets in the dashboard; see the Render Blueprint specification and environment variable guide.

1. Create a MongoDB Atlas database and allow the Render service to connect to it. Keep the Atlas URI private.

2. Create a new Render Blueprint from this repository and apply render.yaml.

3. Enter these prompted secret values for the web service: MONGODB_URI, VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY, VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY, VAPID_SUBJECT, and TICK_SECRET.

4. Generate VAPID keys locally with npx web-push generate-vapid-keys, then copy them into Render. Use a strong random value for TICK_SECRET.

5. Deploy and verify https://<your-service>.onrender.com/health returns { "ok": true }. Render health checks require a successful 2xx/3xx response; the app binds to Render's host and injected PORT (health checks, web services).

6. Initialize MongoDB indexes using the production URI from a trusted machine or a Render shell:

   node scripts/init-db.js

7. Run the local-only Gemma nudge generator separately when you want to refresh data/nudges.json:

   node scripts/make_nudges.js

The Blueprint also provisions a Render Postgres database because the deployment request included one. The current application deliberately does not use it: runtime persistence is MongoDB Atlas, so there is no DATABASE_URL and no Postgres adapter in this project. Remove the databases block if that unused Render database is not needed.

For a production reminder loop, call POST /api/tick from a scheduler and send the x-tick-secret header. The development-only ?force=1 tick path is disabled when NODE_ENV=production.

npm install
copy .env.example .env
npm start

Fill in .env with MongoDB Atlas and Web Push values. Never commit .env or print its contents.

• Sun times are calculated offline with SunCalc.
• Messages are written by the open-weight Gemma model running locally through Ollama.
• Photos never leave the phone; they are stored in device-local IndexedDB.
• There are no third-party AI API keys or per-use AI costs. Web Push and MongoDB still require their normal service credentials.

• subscribers: endpoint, keys { p256dh, auth }, lat, lon, IANA tz, sunrise/sunset preferences, lead time, and createdAt.
• reminders: subscriber, sunrise/sunset kind, event time, fire time, and nullable sent time.
• checkins: subscriber, kind, local date, optional treat, and creation time.