Bare Budget is a full-stack personal finance application designed to help users track income, spending, budgets, categories, and transaction history over time.

It consists of:

• A Next.js 15 / React 19 / TypeScript frontend (App Router)
• A Node.js / Express / TypeScript backend API
• PostgreSQL with Prisma ORM for data storage
• Docker for local database setup
• A modular, extensible architecture intended for long-term growth

This project is actively in development. Several features are partially implemented or in scaffold form, but the structure is designed to support a complete finance dashboard.

• Next.js 15 (App Router)
• React 19
• TypeScript
• TailwindCSS
• Server Components and Client Components architecture

• Node.js
• Express
• TypeScript
• Prisma ORM
• (Planned) Zod validation for request schemas
• REST API design

• PostgreSQL via Docker
• Prisma migrations and schema modeling

• Docker and Docker Compose
• ESLint
• Prettier
• Nodemon
• TypeScript path aliases

From the project root:

docker-compose up -d

This launches the local PostgreSQL instance defined in docker-compose.yml.

Navigate to the backend:

cd backend
npm install

Apply Prisma migrations:

npx prisma migrate dev

Start the backend API:

npm run dev

Backend runs on:

http://localhost:4000

From the project root:

npm install
npm run dev

Frontend runs on:

http://localhost:3000

The application uses the following relational schema for users, accounts, transactions, categories, tags, and notifications:

The backend implements modular routes for key financial entities.

• Create user
• Fetch user details
• Update user
• Delete user

• CRUD operations for financial accounts (checking, savings, credit cards, etc.)

• Create transactions manually or via CSV ingestion
• Query transactions by date range
• Filter by category or account
• Update or re-categorize transactions

• CRUD operations for categories
• Planned: automated categorization using machine learning

• Budget rules per category or account
• Monthly or custom intervals

• Tagging system for additional filtering

• Budget alerts
• Overspending notifications
• General reminders

All backend routes are strongly typed with TypeScript. Schema validation is planned for future updates.

The frontend is built with the Next.js App Router and organizes UI into:

• Dashboard (in progress)
• Categories (in progress)
• Budgets (planned)
• Accounts (planned)
• Transactions table (planned)

• Reusable UI primitives
• Server-side data fetching patterns
• Loading and skeleton states

• TailwindCSS for layout and responsive design

The UI is in early development but is structured for charts, dynamic budgeting features, and more advanced dashboard tools.

• CSV upload and transaction import
• Normalize merchants via an external normalization module
• Full CRUD for accounts, categories, budgets, and transactions
• Monthly or category-based budgeting
• Basic dashboard charts and summaries