TeamConnect

A collaborative conversation platform that transforms team discussions into structured knowledge. Instead of letting important decisions and action items get buried in message threads, TeamConnect extracts and organizes key outcomes from conversations into a dedicated Knowledge Hub.

Project Overview

TeamConnect is built around a simple idea: team conversations produce valuable outcomes — decisions, tasks, and insights — but these outcomes are often lost in long chat histories.

The platform provides:

• Workspace-based collaboration where teams organize around shared workspaces
• Real-time conversations with instant messaging via WebSockets
• Knowledge extraction that captures decisions, action items, and AI-generated summaries directly from discussions
• AI-powered summaries using Google Gemini to distill conversation context into concise, structured summaries

Key Features

Authentication

• User registration and login with JWT-based authentication
• Access token and refresh token mechanism
• Email verification flow
• Secure password hashing with bcrypt

Workspaces

• Create and manage workspaces
• Invite members by email
• Role-based workspace ownership
• Pending invite management with revocation
• Rate-limited invite endpoint

Conversations

• Private (1:1) and group conversations
• Add workspace members to conversations
• Real-time messaging with Socket.IO
• Message editing and soft-delete
• Typing indicators and presence tracking

Knowledge Hub

Each conversation includes a Knowledge Hub panel that organizes structured information from discussions:

Action Items

• Create tasks directly from conversations
• Assign to conversation participants
• Track status: OPEN → IN_PROGRESS → DONE
• Real-time updates across participants

Decision Log

• Record decisions made during discussions
• Track author and timestamp
• Maintain a searchable decision history

AI Conversation Summaries

• Generate summaries from the last 50 messages using Gemini AI
• Structured prompt extracts decisions, constraints, and key ideas
• 5-minute cooldown prevents unnecessary API calls
• Summaries stored in the database and broadcast in real time

Technology Stack

Layer	Technologies
Backend	Node.js, Express, TypeScript
Database	PostgreSQL, Prisma ORM
Real-Time	Socket.IO
Authentication	JWT (access + refresh tokens), bcrypt
AI	Google Gemini API (gemini-1.5-flash)
Frontend	React, TypeScript, Vite, TailwindCSS

System Architecture

Workspace
  │
  ├── Members
  │
  └── Conversations
        │
        ├── Participants
        │
        ├── Messages
        │
        ├── Action Items
        │
        ├── Decisions
        │
        └── Summaries (AI-generated)

The architecture follows a layered approach with clear separation of concerns:

Client (React)
  │
  ├── API Layer (axios abstraction)
  ├── Socket Layer (Socket.IO client)
  └── State Management (Zustand)

Server (Express)
  │
  ├── Routes
  ├── Middleware (auth, error handling)
  ├── Controllers
  ├── Services (Gemini AI)
  └── Database (Prisma ORM → PostgreSQL)

Database Design

User
 ├── WorkspaceMember → Workspace
 ├── Participant → Conversation
 ├── Message
 ├── ActionItem (created / assigned)
 └── Decision (created)

Workspace
 ├── WorkspaceMember
 ├── WorkspaceInvite
 └── Conversation
      ├── Participant
      ├── Message
      ├── ActionItem
      ├── Decision
      └── ConversationSummary

Key design decisions:

• Cascade deletes on conversation-scoped entities
• Action items scoped to conversation participants (not workspace-wide)
• Summaries track messageCount to indicate staleness
• Soft-delete for messages to preserve conversation integrity

API Overview

Authentication

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/auth/register	Register new user
POST	/api/auth/login	Login
POST	/api/auth/refresh-token	Refresh access token
POST	/api/auth/logout	Logout
GET	/api/auth/verify-email/:token	Verify email

Workspaces

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/workspaces	Create workspace
GET	/api/workspaces	List user workspaces
GET	/api/workspaces/:id/members	List workspace members
POST	/api/workspace-invites/send	Send email invite
DELETE	/api/workspace-invites/:id	Revoke invite

Conversations

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/conversations/private	Create private conversation
POST	/api/conversations/group	Create group conversation
GET	/api/conversations	List user conversations
POST	/api/conversations/:id/participants	Add member

Messages

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/messages	Send message
GET	/api/messages/:conversationId	Get messages
PATCH	/api/messages/:id	Edit message
DELETE	/api/messages/:id	Soft-delete message

Action Items

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/conversations/:id/action-items	Create action item
GET	/api/conversations/:id/action-items	List action items
PATCH	/api/action-items/:id	Update status/description
DELETE	/api/action-items/:id	Delete action item

Decisions

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/conversations/:id/decisions	Record decision
GET	/api/conversations/:id/decisions	List decisions
DELETE	/api/decisions/:id	Delete decision

AI Summary

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/conversations/:id/summarize	Generate AI summary
GET	/api/conversations/:id/summary	Get latest summary

Project Structure

TeamConnect/
├── server/
│   ├── prisma/
│   │   └── schema/              # Prisma schema files (multi-file)
│   └── src/
│       ├── config/              # Database and environment config
│       ├── controllers/         # Request handlers
│       ├── middleware/          # Auth and error middleware
│       ├── routes/             # Express route definitions
│       ├── services/           # Business logic (Gemini AI)
│       ├── socket/             # Socket.IO server and event handlers
│       ├── utils/              # Email utilities
│       ├── app.ts              # Express app setup
│       └── server.ts           # Server entry point
│
└── client/
    └── src/
        ├── app/
        │   ├── chart/          # Chat UI components (Knowledge Hub, Messages)
        │   ├── components/     # Shared components
        │   ├── layout/         # Layout wrappers
        │   └── pages/          # Route pages
        ├── hooks/              # Custom React hooks
        ├── lib/                # API client, socket client
        ├── store/              # Zustand state management
        └── types/              # TypeScript type definitions

Running the Project

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18+)
• PostgreSQL
• Google Gemini API key

Backend Setup

cd server
npm install

Create a .env file:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/teamconnect_db
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
REFRESH_TOKEN_SECRET=your_refresh_secret
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRES_IN=15m
REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRES_IN=7d
GEMINI_API_KEY=your_gemini_api_key
CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173
SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
SMTP_USER=your_email
SMTP_PASS=your_app_password

Run migrations and start the server:

npx prisma migrate dev
npm run dev

Frontend Setup

cd client
npm install

Create a .env file:

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:5000
VITE_SOCKET_URL=http://localhost:5000

Start the development server:

npm run dev

The frontend runs on http://localhost:5173 and the backend on http://localhost:5000.