GitLife is a full-stack social platform that gamifies life decision-making using Git metaphors. Track decisions as commits, create alternate-life branches, explore an interactive decision graph, and share your journey with a community, all without needing to know anything about Git.
- Decision Commits - Log life choices with a title, branch, mood emoji, impact score (1-100), category, description, and optional image
- Branch Management - Create alternate timeline branches for "what if" scenarios; track commits and impact per branch
- Interactive Decision Graph - Visualize decisions as linked nodes using React Flow; explore dependency chains between choices
- Blame Chains - Mark decisions with blame status and notes; trace responsibility through a chain of linked choices
- Stash System - Draft decisions without publishing them; retrieve them when you're ready to commit
- Social Feed - See commits from users you follow in chronological order
- Explore - Discover public decisions, search users, and find suggested people to follow
- Reactions - Fork, Merge, and Support reactions on other users' commits
- Comments & Threading - Nested comment threads with like support on every decision
- Follow System - Follow users and build a personalized feed
- Direct Messaging - Real-time chat powered by Socket.IO, with link preview generation, message editing, emoji reactions, and message search
- Notifications - Live notifications for reactions, comments, messages, and follows
- Online Presence - Real-time online status tracking
- Stats Dashboard - Track total decisions, branches, cumulative impact score, and mood distribution
- Mood Chart - Recharts-powered visualization of emotional state trends over time
- User Profiles - Public profile pages showing a user's decisions and stats
- Google OAuth + JWT Auth - Register and log in with email/password or Google
- Image Uploads - Attach images to decisions via Cloudinary
- Dark / Light Theme - Full theme switching with an OKLch color system
- PWA Support - Installable as a Progressive Web App
- Mobile-Optimized - Bottom sheet modal for new commits, camera capture for image attachments
- Data Export - Export your decision data at any time
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Frontend | React 18, Vite, React Router v6 |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS, Framer Motion |
| Server State | TanStack React Query v5 |
| Graph | React Flow (@xyflow/react) |
| Charts | Recharts |
| Backend | Express.js (Node.js, ES Modules) |
| Database | MongoDB (native driver) |
| Real-time | Socket.IO |
| Auth | JWT, bcryptjs, Google OAuth |
| Media | Cloudinary, Multer |
| Security | Helmet, express-validator, CORS |
| Deployment | Render (render.yaml included) |
- Node.js v16+ (v18 recommended)
- MongoDB - local install or MongoDB Atlas
- Google OAuth credentials (optional, for social login)
- Cloudinary account (optional, for image uploads)
# 1. Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/soorajdmg/GitLife
cd GitLife
# 2. Install frontend dependencies
npm install
# 3. Install backend dependencies
cd server && npm install && cd ..Terminal 1 - Backend (runs on port 5000):
cd server
npm startTerminal 2 - Frontend (runs on port 5173):
npm run devOpen http://localhost:5173, create an account, and start committing.
Frontend - create .env in the root directory:
VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:5000/api
VITE_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your-google-client-id
VITE_CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your-cloudinary-cloud-name
VITE_CLOUDINARY_UPLOAD_PRESET=your-upload-presetBackend - create server/.env:
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/gitlife
PORT=5000
JWT_SECRET=your-super-secret-key-change-in-production
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your-google-client-id
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your-google-client-secret
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:5173Google OAuth and Cloudinary credentials are optional. The app works without them, but social login and image uploads will be unavailable.
Frontend (root directory):
| Script | Description |
|---|---|
npm run dev |
Start development server |
npm run build |
Build for production |
npm run preview |
Preview production build |
npm run lint |
Run ESLint |
Backend (server/ directory):
| Script | Description |
|---|---|
npm start |
Start production server |
npm run dev |
Start with nodemon (auto-reload) |
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch:
git checkout -b feature/your-feature - Commit your changes:
git commit -m 'Add your feature' - Push to the branch:
git push origin feature/your-feature - Open a Pull Request
- Email: soorajmurugaraj@gmail.com
- GitHub: soorajdmg
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