Chunav

(Formerly "Election".)

Make a fun poll between two or more choices (Virat · Rohit · Dhoni, pizza · biryani), share the link, and watch the votes. Just for fun. Not official or legal elections.

Full project reference (what, who, journey, sharing, design rules, open questions): docs/ABOUT.md.

Run it on your computer

npm install
npm run dev        # open http://localhost:3000

No database setup needed. It saves to a local folder (.data/). To use a real database, copy .env.example to .env.local and set DATABASE_URL.

Check everything works

npm run check      # types + tests + production build

What is built (MVP)

Short summary. The full, current list is in docs/ABOUT.md (counting day, Hindi, real inked-finger photo, app feel).

• Create a poll: question, 2 to 10 choices, category, optional end time.
• Two options per poll: hide results until you vote, and allow changing your vote.
• Vote with one tap. One vote per person is enforced by the database, so fast double taps cannot count twice.
• Live results bars, share button, copy link, and a share card image for WhatsApp / X / Slack previews.
• Phone-first design, light and dark mode (look taken from the patricka project).

How it is built

Part	Choice	Why
App	Next.js + TypeScript	One codebase for pages, API and share images. Very common, easy to hire for.
Database	Postgres (Drizzle)	Safe, proven, handles huge growth. Local file database in development.
Voter identity	Signed cookie	No login needed to vote. Can add sign-in later.
Rate limits	In memory	Swap for Redis when you run more than one server.

Files to know: src/db/schema.ts (tables), src/lib/polls.ts (all poll and vote rules), src/app/api/ (the API), src/app/ (pages), src/styles/ (look).

When it gets heavy (growth plan)

1. First deploy: Vercel + a hosted Postgres (Neon or Supabase). Set DATABASE_URL, VOTER_SECRET (16+ characters) and NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL. The app refuses to start in production without the first two. After deploying, open /api/health: {"ok":true} means the database is connected.
2. Viral poll: add Redis (Upstash) for vote counters and rate limits, so the database is not hit for every refresh.
3. Cheating: add Google sign-in and a CAPTCHA (Cloudflare Turnstile) as an option for "verified" polls.
4. Later: discovery and trending, comments, report and moderation tools, languages, accounts, paid plans.

Known limits today

• Rate limiting is per server unless the Upstash settings are added (see .env.example).
• No accounts yet: a person who clears cookies can vote again. Fine for fun polls, not for sign-in-only polls (next step).
• Moderation is the owner's review page (/admin, needs ADMIN_SECRET).
• Candidate images are in the database schema but not in the form yet.