CourseFlow OSO 2026

AI-powered course generator — build structured learning paths from outline to lessons in one click.

Team 11–12 OSO

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Features

• Auth — email/password sign up & sign in with JWT
• Create Course wizard — category → topic/description → options
• One-click generation — full course (outline + chapter content + optional YouTube videos)
• Dashboard — course cards with category-based blue icons
• Study player — chapter sidebar, progress, video embed, lesson content
• Landing & legal — marketing home, About, Terms, Privacy

Tech stack

Layer	Tech
Frontend	React 19, Vite 8, React Router 7, Lucide React
Backend	Express 5, Mongoose, JWT, bcrypt
Database	MongoDB
AI	OpenRouter (e.g. openai/gpt-4o-mini)
Extras	Serper (web search), YouTube Data API (videos)

Project structure

CourseFlow OSO/
├── client/                 # React + Vite app
│   └── src/
│       ├── pages/          # Dashboard, CreateCourse, CourseStudy, legal
│       ├── components/     # Sidebar, Stepper, BrandLogo, Footer, steps
│       ├── api/            # API helpers
│       └── utils/          # auth helpers
├── backend/                # Express API
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── models/             # User, courseLayout, courseContent
│   ├── services/           # AI, video, search
│   ├── routes/
│   ├── middleware/
│   └── .env.example
└── package.json            # root scripts

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (20/22 recommended)
• MongoDB (Atlas or local)
• OpenRouter API key (required for generation)
• Optional: Serper API key, YouTube Data API key

Setup

1. Install dependencies

npm run install:all

Or separately:

npm install --prefix backend
npm install --prefix client

2. Configure environment

Copy the example env file and fill in values:

cp backend/.env.example backend/.env

Variable	Description
PORT	Backend port (default 5000)
MONGODB_URI	MongoDB connection string
JWT_SECRET	Secret for signing JWTs
CLIENT_URL	Frontend origin (http://localhost:5173)
OPENROUTER_API_KEY	OpenRouter API key
OPENROUTER_MODEL	Model id (e.g. openai/gpt-4o-mini)
YOUTUBE_API_KEY	Chapter videos

Prefer a cost-efficient OpenRouter model. HTTP 402 usually means insufficient credits.

3. Run locally

Terminal 1 — API

npm run dev:backend

Terminal 2 — UI

npm run dev:client

Service	URL
Client	http://localhost:5173
Backend	http://localhost:5000

Vite proxies /api → http://localhost:5000.

Usage flow

1. Open the landing page → Get Started
2. Register or sign in
3. + Create AI Course
4. Choose category, topic, and options → Generate Course
5. Wait for generation (ETA shown in the status box)
6. Go to Course and study chapter by chapter

API overview

Auth

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/auth/register	Create account
POST	/api/auth/login	Sign in
GET	/api/auth/me	Current user (auth)

Courses

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/courses/generate	Generate full course (auth)
GET	/api/courses/user	User’s courses
GET	/api/courses/:id	Course by id
DELETE	/api/courses/:id	Delete course
GET	/api/dashboard/courses	Dashboard course list

Generation pipeline

1. Validate category, topic, level, duration, chapters
2. Optional web search (Serper) for topic context
3. AI builds outline + detailed chapter content (OpenRouter)
4. Optional YouTube video per chapter (embeddable)
5. Save courseLayout + courseContent → return courseId

Frontend routes

Route	Description
/	Landing
/auth	Sign in / Sign up
/dashboard	App (auth required)
/course/:courseId	Study player
/about	About
/terms	Terms
/privacy-policy	Privacy

Troubleshooting

Issue	What to check
Generation fails / 402	OpenRouter credits & OPENROUTER_MODEL
No videos	YOUTUBE_API_KEY or Serper; embeddable results
Empty dashboard	User email matches createdBy; MongoDB URI
API / CORS errors	Backend on port 5000; Vite proxy for /api

Security notes

• Never commit backend/.env or real API keys
• Change JWT_SECRET for production
• Tokens are stored in localStorage (token, courseflow_user)

License

Private / academic project — Team 11–12 OSO.

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CourseFlow — custom learning paths, powered by AI.