Skill N Success — Backend

A real, working backend for the Skill N Success platform: assessment persistence, versioned scoring, AI-generated Success Plans (Claude), and an optional Razorpay checkout — plus the marketing site, served as one deployable app.

→ To go live on skillnsuccess.com, see DEPLOY.md. That file has the exact GitHub → Render → GoDaddy DNS steps. This README covers what the app does and how to run it locally.

Payments are optional — the site is fully live-able without them

Set ENABLE_PAYMENTS=false (the default) and the pricing section shows a waitlist capture instead of a checkout button — real emails get saved, nothing breaks, and you don't need Razorpay or Anthropic keys to launch. Flip ENABLE_PAYMENTS=true later, once those keys are ready, and the same button becomes a live Razorpay checkout with no code changes.

What's real vs. what needs your keys

Piece	Status
Assessment start/resume/answer/complete	Working now, no keys needed
Scoring engine (versioned, deterministic)	Working now, no keys needed
Dashboard aggregation	Working now, no keys needed
Waitlist capture	Working now, no keys needed
Razorpay checkout	Code is correct and tested against bad/missing config — dormant until ENABLE_PAYMENTS=true + real keys
AI Success Plan generation (Claude)	Code is correct — gated behind a paid entitlement, so also dormant until payments are on
User auth	Simplified to email-only for MVP (no password/OTP). Fine for a soft launch

1. Local setup

cd skillnsuccess-backend
npm install
cp .env.example .env      # then fill in real values (see below)
npm start                 # serves API + frontend at http://localhost:8080

2. Get your real keys (only needed once you enable payments — see DEPLOY.md)

Razorpay (dashboard.razorpay.com → Account & Settings → API Keys)

• Start in Test Mode: keys look like rzp_test_...
• Create a Webhook (Settings → Webhooks) pointing at https://YOUR_DOMAIN/api/checkout/webhook, subscribed to payment.captured and order.paid. Copy the webhook secret into RAZORPAY_WEBHOOK_SECRET.
• Switch to live keys (rzp_live_...) only once you've tested a full test-mode payment end to end.

Anthropic (console.anthropic.com → API Keys)

• Create a key, put it in ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.
• Generation is grounded: the prompt in src/ai/anthropic.js explicitly forbids inventing facts not present in the user's own profile/answers.

3. Deploying and connecting skillnsuccess.com

Full step-by-step (GitHub → Render → GoDaddy DNS) is in DEPLOY.md. Short version: push to GitHub, connect the repo on Render, add two DNS records in GoDaddy — no nameserver changes needed.

Scaling note: SQLite is fine for MVP/early traffic. When you outgrow a single file (roughly hundreds of concurrent users), swap src/db.js for Postgres — the SQL is plain enough that the migration is mostly mechanical.

4. API reference (for your own testing / future mobile app)

POST /api/assessment/start           { name, email, source? }              → { assessment_id, user_id, resumed, answers }
POST /api/assessment/:id/answer      { questionIndex, optionIndex }        → { ok: true }
GET  /api/assessment/:id                                                    → { assessment, answers }
POST /api/assessment/:id/complete    { profile? }                          → { overall, dimensionScores, version }
GET  /api/assessment/:id/score                                              → latest score row

POST /api/waitlist                   { email, assessmentId? }             → { ok: true }

POST /api/checkout/create-order      { assessmentId, couponCode? }         → { order_id, razorpay_order_id, amount, currency, key_id }  (503 if payments disabled)
POST /api/checkout/verify            { razorpay_order_id, razorpay_payment_id, razorpay_signature } → { ok: true }
POST /api/checkout/webhook           (raw body, x-razorpay-signature header) → { received: true }

POST /api/generation/:assessmentId/generate                                 → { job_id, status }  (requires active entitlement)
GET  /api/generation/:assessmentId/result                                   → { status, artifact }

GET  /api/dashboard/:assessmentId                                           → { assessment, score, entitlement_active, generation_status }
GET  /api/config                                                            → { paymentsEnabled }
GET  /api/health                                                            → { ok: true }

5. What's intentionally left as a fast-follow, not a blocker

• Real OTP/email verification (currently email-only)
• Admin panel to view/edit scoring weights and coupons without a redeploy
• Background job queue for generation (currently runs inline — fine until volume grows)
• Postgres migration path for scale
• CV export as downloadable PDF/DOCX files (currently returns structured JSON content)