Add a `.env.example` File — The README References One That Doesn't Exist

[Vedant1703]

📋 Description

The Getting Started section of the README (Step 2) tells contributors to run:

cp .env.example .env

But .env.example does not exist in the repository. Any new contributor who follows the README will immediately hit an error:

cp: .env.example: No such file or directory

This is one of the most common friction points for first-time open source contributors and should be fixed immediately.

---

📍 File to Create

.env.example at the repository root

---

✅ What To Do

Create a .env.example file with all required keys stubbed out using placeholder values and helpful comments:

# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# 🗄️ Database (Supabase PostgreSQL)
# Get your connection string from: https://supabase.com/dashboard
# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:<password>@<host>:<port>/<db>

# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# 🔐 GitHub OAuth App Credentials
# Create one at: https://github.com/settings/developers
# Callback URL should be: http://localhost:8080/auth/github/callback
# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=your_github_client_id
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=your_github_client_secret

# A Personal Access Token for higher GitHub API rate limits
GITHUB_TOKEN=your_personal_github_token

# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# 🔑 JWT Secret (use a long random string, min 32 characters)
# Generate with: openssl rand -hex 32
# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
JWT_SECRET=your_super_secret_jwt_key_min_32_chars

# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# 🤖 AI Provider: "groq" (recommended) or "gemini"
# Groq API: https://console.groq.com/
# Gemini API: https://aistudio.google.com/
# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
LLM_PROVIDER=groq
LLM_MODEL=mixtral-8x7b-32768
GROQ_API_KEY=your_groq_api_key
GEMINI_API_KEY=your_gemini_api_key

# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# 🌐 Frontend (Next.js) — URLs for backend services
# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
NEXT_PUBLIC_CORE_SERVICE_URL=http://localhost:8083
NEXT_PUBLIC_GITHUB_SERVICE_URL=http://localhost:8081

# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# 🔗 Auth Redirect (where GitHub OAuth sends users after login)
# ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
AUTH_REDIRECT_URL=http://localhost:3000/auth/success

---

🏁 Acceptance Criteria

• .env.example exists at the repository root
• All environment variables referenced in the README are present with placeholder values
• Every variable has a comment explaining what it is and where to obtain it
• .env.example is committed to the repo (it does NOT get added to .gitignore — it contains no real secrets, only placeholders)

---

💡 Technical Hints

• Check the existing .env files inside each service directory for all variables used:
  • backend/core_service/.env
  • backend/auth-service/.env (if it exists)
  • backend/ai-service/.env
  • frontend/.env.local
• The file must use placeholder values like your_api_key_here — never use real credentials
• .env.example should be tracked by git. Only .env itself should be in .gitignore

---

🚀 Getting Started

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a branch: git checkout -b fix/issue-7-add-env-example
3. Create .env.example at the project root
4. Make sure it is NOT listed in .gitignore
5. Open a Pull Request!