ResetYourFuture

A psychosocial career counseling platform with courses, learning paths, assessments, course reviews, scheduled live sessions, real-time chat, video calls, in-app notifications, subscriptions, blog, testimonials, site search, certificate generation, and a local AI assistant.

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Quickstart

# 1. Clone
git clone https://github.com/s070s/ResetYourFuture.git
cd ResetYourFuture

# 2. Trust HTTPS dev certificate (once per machine)
dotnet dev-certs https --trust

# 3. Set up secrets — copy the template and fill in your own values
cp .env.template .env          # keep .env at the repo root (next to .env.template)
# Edit .env and set at minimum:
#   AdminUser__Password=YourAdminPassword123!
#   SeedData__StudentPassword=YourStudentPassword123!
#   Jwt__Key=your-dev-jwt-key-at-least-32-chars   ← must be ≥ 32 characters

# 4. Restore packages
dotnet restore

# 5. Build
dotnet build

# 6. Run
dotnet run --project src/ResetYourFuture.Web
# Visual Studio: right-click Solution → Configure Startup Projects → set ResetYourFuture.Web → F5

# 7. (Optional) Install Ollama for the local AI assistant — everything else is automatic
winget install Ollama.Ollama   # see the "AI Assistant" section below

Database is created and migrated automatically on first run. If you drop the database (e.g. from SSMS), just restart the app — it will recreate and reseed it.

Database connection string — do you need to change it on a new PC? The default targets SQL Server LocalDB (Server=(localdb)\MSSQLLocalDB), whose instance name is the same on every machine, so cloning onto a new PC needs no change — just have LocalDB installed (it ships with Visual Studio and SQL Server Express). Only set ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection in .env if you point the app at a different SQL Server — a named instance, SQL Express, a remote server, or SQL authentication — because that server name is specific to the machine it runs on. Since .env is gitignored it never travels with a clone: on a new PC you recreate it from .env.template (LocalDB default) and adjust the connection string only if you are not using LocalDB. The app reads .env first and falls back to the dev default in appsettings.Development.json.

Admin: admin@resetyourfuture.local / (password you set in .env)

Seed data (students, courses, assessments) runs automatically in Development when SeedData:Enabled = true in appsettings.Development.json. The bulk student seeder runs in the background after startup. Set SeedData:BulkStudentCount in .env to control the count (default: 10).

Never commit .env — it is already in .gitignore. Use .env.template to document which keys are needed.

Known build issue (OpenApi pin): package versions are pinned centrally in Directory.Packages.props, and committed packages.lock.json files with CI --locked-mode guard against drift. If a restore/build ever fails with a Microsoft.OpenApi version conflict (some restore paths silently rewrite that pin), recover with git checkout Directory.Packages.props (and any changed .csproj), then restore again.

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Runtime	.NET 10
Frontend / Backend	Blazor SSR + ASP.NET Core Web API
ORM	Entity Framework Core 10 (SQL Server)
Auth	ASP.NET Core Identity · Cookie (SSR) · JWT Bearer · Refresh tokens
Real-time	SignalR — chat (/hubs/chat), video-call signaling (/hubs/call), and notifications (/hubs/notifications)
Video calls	Self-hosted WebRTC (P2P mesh, up to 6 participants) with SignalR signaling
API docs	OpenAPI (Microsoft.AspNetCore.OpenApi) + Swagger UI — /swagger (Development only)
PDF	QuestPDF 2026.2.4
Localization	English + Greek (.resx)
Testing	xUnit + Shouldly + NSubstitute · EF Core InMemory/SQLite · WebApplicationFactory · Playwright e2e (local)
CI	GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/tests.yml)
Logging	Custom daily file logger
Email	MailKit SmtpEmailService whenever Email:Smtp:Host is configured; StubEmailService (logs to file) as the Development fallback; startup throws in Production if neither
Security	HSTS · X-Content-Type-Options · X-Frame-Options · Referrer-Policy · Permissions-Policy
AI Assistant	Local Ollama sidecar via Microsoft.Extensions.AI — qwen3:1.7b chat (tool-calling agent) + bge-m3 embeddings, auto-pulled at startup, no cloud API

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Solution Structure

ResetYourFuture.sln
├── src/
│   ├── ResetYourFuture.Domain/          Entities, enums, value objects — no framework dependencies
│   ├── ResetYourFuture.Application/     Service interfaces, DTOs, application services, entity→DTO mapping helpers (Mappings/)
│   ├── ResetYourFuture.Infrastructure/  EF Core DbContext, migrations, service implementations
│   ├── ResetYourFuture.Web/             Blazor SSR + API controllers — the only deployable project
│   └── ResetYourFuture.Shared/          Localization resources (.resx EN/EL + Designer classes), JSON seed data
└── tests/                               Unit, integration, e2e (Playwright), and shared test-support projects

Adding a field to an entity touches several layers (entity → EF config → migration → DTO → mapping helper → controller → consumer → page → resx). Follow the checklist in docs/ADDING-A-FIELD.md so no step is missed — a skipped step surfaces as a silently blank value, not an error.

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Quality & Tests

Run the full suite locally:

dotnet test ResetYourFuture.sln

The test projects mirror the application layers under tests/: Domain.Tests, Application.Tests, Infrastructure.Tests, and Web.Tests, plus ResetYourFuture.TestSupport for shared fixtures. The suite uses free/permissive test dependencies only: xUnit, Shouldly, NSubstitute, EF Core InMemory/SQLite, and Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Testing.

Web integration tests boot the real ASP.NET Core pipeline through WebApplicationFactory<Program>. The test host supplies dummy JWT/admin settings, runs in Development, swaps SQL Server for InMemory, and uses SQLite only for provider behaviors InMemory cannot execute, such as EF.Functions.Like or ExecuteUpdateAsync.

GitHub Actions runs on every push and pull request: a locked-mode restore, a Release build, a code-style gate (dotnet format style --verify-no-changes — a file that drifts from .editorconfig fails the build), and dotnet test, then uploads TRX results from TestResults/*.trx. A separate job applies the full migration chain against a real SQL Server container to catch migrations that pass on InMemory/SQLite but break on SQL Server. There is no coverage gate or coverage artifact yet; the definition of done is a green dotnet test locally and in CI. Style and the recommended analyzers also run in every local build (EnforceCodeStyleInBuild), surfacing as warnings rather than blocking day-to-day work.

End-to-end tests (local)

A Playwright smoke suite under tests/e2e/ covers the browser-only behaviors the .NET suite can't reach: login through the real auth redirect chain, a consumer-backed page actually rendering data (the silent-blank-render failure mode), the Greek culture switch, and a two-user video call connecting with fake media. It runs locally on demand (needs Node.js and the seeded Development database — it is not part of CI):

cd tests/e2e
npm install
npx playwright install chromium   # first time only
npx playwright test

Monitoring & diagnostics

The app exposes two health endpoints for uptime probes and orchestrators:

• GET /health/live — liveness (process is up; runs no checks).
• GET /health/ready — readiness (database reachable; the AI assistant reports Degraded, not down, when Ollama is unreachable).

For live runtime metrics (GC, thread pool, request rate, exceptions) without any extra setup, attach the built-in .NET counters to a running instance:

dotnet counters monitor -n ResetYourFuture.Web

A full metrics/tracing stack (OpenTelemetry + an OTLP backend) is intentionally not wired in — this single-instance project has no metrics backend to ship to, and dotnet-counters plus the daily log error-digest cover live diagnostics. Adopting OpenTelemetry is the documented next step if the app is ever run unattended (see docs/plans/38-audit-observability.md).

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API Documentation (Swagger / OpenAPI)

Interactive API docs are generated from the code (built-in Microsoft.AspNetCore.OpenApi + Swagger UI) and served in Development only:

Resource	URL
Swagger UI	https://localhost:7090/swagger
OpenAPI document (JSON)	https://localhost:7090/openapi/v1.json

Authorize / test secured endpoints: click Authorize in Swagger UI, then paste a JWT obtained from POST /api/auth/login — paste the token value only (the Bearer prefix is added for you). The lock icon on each operation reflects whether it requires authentication.

What's covered:

• Every API controller, grouped by tag (e.g. Authentication, Courses, Admin · Users & Roles), with summaries, parameter descriptions, response codes (200 / 201 / 204 / 400 / 401 / 403 / 404 / 409 / 500), and request-body examples pre-filled for "Try it out".
• The four browser-navigation endpoints (/culture/set, /auth/complete, /auth/signout, /sitemap.xml) under the Infrastructure tag.
• The SignalR chat hub (/hubs/chat) — documented in the document description (invoke methods, server events, query-string JWT auth) with the ChatMessageDto / ChatNotificationDto payload shapes under Schemas. SignalR is not a REST protocol, so it appears as reference rather than callable operations.
• The AI Assistant chat endpoint (POST /api/assistant/chat) — a normal HTTP operation but with a text/event-stream (Server-Sent Events) response; the document description explains the AssistantStreamEvent frame shape (see AI Assistant).
• The SignalR call hub (/hubs/call) is the WebRTC signaling channel for video calls; like the chat hub it is a bidirectional WebSocket protocol, so it is not represented as callable REST operations (see Video Calls).

Production: the Swagger UI and /openapi/v1.json endpoints are mapped only when ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development; they are not exposed in Production.

Implementation: src/ResetYourFuture.Web/OpenApi/OpenApiExtensions.cs (info metadata, JWT bearer security scheme, per-operation security/lock, parameter & response descriptions, request examples, hub documentation). Action/DTO summaries flow into the doc via <GenerateDocumentationFile> on the ResetYourFuture.Web and ResetYourFuture.Application projects.

The tables below are a quick static reference; Swagger UI is the authoritative, always-current source.

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Endpoints

Auth — api/auth

Method	Route	Description	Auth
POST	api/auth/register	Register new user (Student role)	No
GET	api/auth/confirm-email	Confirm email via token link	No
POST	api/auth/login	Log in — returns JWT + refresh token	No
POST	api/auth/forgot-password	Request password-reset email	No
POST	api/auth/reset-password	Reset password with token	No
GET	api/auth/me	Current user info from JWT	Yes
POST	api/auth/refresh	Rotate refresh token — returns new JWT + refresh token pair	No
POST	api/auth/dev/confirm-email	Dev-only: confirm email without link (compiled out in Release builds)	Dev
POST	api/auth/dev/reset-password	Dev-only: reset password without email (compiled out in Release builds)	Dev

Profile — api/profile

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/profile	Get current user's profile	Yes
PUT	api/profile	Update profile	Yes
DELETE	api/profile	Delete own account (GDPR erasure); returns 204 No Content	Yes
GET	api/profile/export	Download own data (GDPR access/portability)	Yes
POST	api/profile/avatar	Upload avatar	Yes
GET	api/profile/avatar	Get avatar	Yes
POST	api/profile/change-password	Change password	Yes

Courses — api/courses

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/courses	List published courses (optional ?categoryId= and ?search= filters — see Content Categories)	Yes
GET	api/courses/{courseId}	Course detail with modules and lessons	Yes
POST	api/courses/{courseId}/enroll	Enroll in a course	Yes
GET	api/courses/lessons/{lessonId}	Lesson detail	Yes
POST	api/courses/lessons/{lessonId}/complete	Mark lesson complete	Yes
GET	api/courses/{courseId}/reviews	Approved reviews, aggregate rating, and the caller's own review — see Course Reviews	Yes
POST	api/courses/{courseId}/reviews	Create/update own review (enrolled only; edits reset it to Pending for moderation)	Yes

Lesson Assets — api/lessons

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/lessons/{lessonId}/asset?type=pdf|video	Download lesson PDF or video (enrolled only)	Yes

Assessments — api/assessments

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/assessments	List published assessments (paged; optional ?categoryId= and ?search= filters — see Content Categories)	Yes
GET	api/assessments/{id}	Assessment detail	Yes
POST	api/assessments/{id}/submit	Submit answers (AnswersJson max 50 000 chars)	Yes
GET	api/assessments/mine	Current user's submissions	Yes

Categories — api/categories

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/categories?scope=courses|assessments&lang=en	Categories with ≥1 published item in the scope, with counts (drives the browse/filter chips)	Yes

Certificates — api/certificates

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/certificates/my	List current user's certificates	Yes
POST	api/certificates/issue/{courseId}	Issue certificate for completed course (certificate-enabled plan required)	Yes
GET	api/certificates/{certificateId}/download	Download certificate PDF	Yes
GET	api/certificates/verify/{verificationId}	Public certificate verification	No

Learning Paths — api/paths

Curated, ordered sequences of courses (see Learning Paths). Public catalog; reads the caller's identity when present to project per-user step progress.

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/paths	Published learning paths for the catalog (?lang=en)	No
GET	api/paths/{id}	Path detail with ordered steps and, for signed-in users, per-step progress (locked / next / done)	No

Scheduled Sessions — api/sessions

Upcoming live sessions an admin schedules and users register for (see Scheduled Sessions).

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/sessions	Upcoming (Scheduled/Live) sessions, soonest first (?lang=en)	Yes
POST	api/sessions/{id}/register	Register the current user for a session	Yes
POST	api/sessions/{id}/unregister	Unregister from a session	Yes
POST	api/sessions/{id}/link-call	Record the video-call session a participant started for this scheduled session	Yes

Subscriptions — api/subscriptions

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/subscriptions/plans	List plans	No
GET	api/subscriptions/status	Current user's subscription status	Yes
POST	api/subscriptions/checkout	Start checkout	Yes
POST	api/subscriptions/webhook	Payment webhook	No
POST	api/subscriptions/cancel	Cancel subscription	Yes
GET	api/subscriptions/billing	Billing history	Yes

Chat — api/chat + SignalR /hubs/chat

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/chat/conversations	List conversations	Yes
GET	api/chat/conversations/{conversationId}/messages	Load messages	Yes
POST	api/chat/conversations/start	Start conversation	Yes
DELETE	api/chat/conversations/{conversationId}	Delete conversation	Yes
GET	api/chat/users	Users available to chat	Yes
GET	api/chat/unread-count	Unread message count	Yes
—	/hubs/chat (SignalR)	Real-time hub	Yes (JWT via query string)

Video Calls — SignalR /hubs/call

Video calls have no REST endpoints — everything runs over the SignalR hub (WebRTC signaling) plus browser-to-browser media. Like chat, they are available to every authenticated user. See Video Calls for the full flow.

Method	Route	Description	Auth
—	/hubs/call (SignalR)	Call signaling hub — StartCall / AcceptCall / DeclineCall / CancelCall / LeaveCall / InviteToCall / RejoinCall / UpdateMediaState / GetCallableUsers, plus SendOffer / SendAnswer / SendIceCandidate for WebRTC negotiation	Yes (JWT via query string)

Notifications — api/notifications + SignalR /hubs/notifications

An in-app notification inbox with a bell badge and live push (see Notifications). Available to every authenticated user.

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/notifications	Paged, sortable notification history (?page=&pageSize=&sortBy=&sortDir=)	Yes
GET	api/notifications/unread-count	Unread count for the bell badge	Yes
POST	api/notifications/{id}/read	Mark one notification read	Yes
POST	api/notifications/read-all	Mark all of the caller's notifications read	Yes
—	/hubs/notifications (SignalR)	Live push of new notifications	Yes (JWT via query string)

Blog — api/blog

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/blog/summaries	Latest published summaries (?count=6&lang=en)	No
GET	api/blog/{slug}	Single article by slug (?lang=en)	No

Testimonials — api/testimonials

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/testimonials	All active testimonials ordered by DisplayOrder	No

Search — api/search

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/search	Site-wide search over published courses, assessments, and blog articles (?q=&limit=8&lang=en; empty q returns no results)	No

Site Settings — api/site

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/site/background-image	Landing page background image	No
POST	api/admin/site/background-image	Upload landing page background image (lives under api/admin/* like every other admin-only surface)	Admin

Media — api/media

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/media/{*filePath}	Serve public media files (allowed folders: blog/covers, testimonials/avatars; allowed extensions: .jpg .jpeg .png .gif .webp .avif .svg)	No

Admin — Users — api/admin

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/users	List users (paged, searchable)	Admin
GET	api/admin/users/{userId}	User detail	Admin
GET	api/admin/users/search	Search users	Admin
POST	api/admin/users/{userId}/roles/{roleName}	Add role	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/users/{userId}/roles/{roleName}	Remove role	Admin
GET	api/admin/roles	List all roles	Admin
POST	api/admin/roles/{roleName}	Create role	Admin
POST	api/admin/users/{userId}/disable	Disable user	Admin
POST	api/admin/users/{userId}/enable	Enable user	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/users/{userId}	Delete user; returns 204 No Content	Admin
POST	api/admin/users/{userId}/force-password-reset	Force password reset — emails reset link to user; returns 204 No Content	Admin
POST	api/admin/users/{userId}/set-password	Directly set password	Admin
POST	api/admin/users/{userId}/impersonate	Generate temporary JWT as that user	Admin

Admin — Courses — api/admin/courses

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/courses	List all courses	Admin
GET	api/admin/courses/{id}	Course detail with modules and enrollments	Admin
POST	api/admin/courses	Create course	Admin
PUT	api/admin/courses/{id}	Update course	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/courses/{id}	Delete course	Admin
POST	api/admin/courses/{id}/publish	Publish	Admin
POST	api/admin/courses/{id}/unpublish	Unpublish	Admin

Admin — Modules — api/admin/modules

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/modules/course/{courseId}	List modules for a course	Admin
GET	api/admin/modules/{id}	Module detail	Admin
POST	api/admin/modules	Create module	Admin
PUT	api/admin/modules/{id}	Update module	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/modules/{id}	Delete module	Admin

Admin — Lessons — api/admin/lessons

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/lessons/module/{moduleId}	List lessons for a module	Admin
GET	api/admin/lessons/{id}	Lesson detail	Admin
POST	api/admin/lessons	Create lesson	Admin
PUT	api/admin/lessons/{id}	Update lesson	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/lessons/{id}	Delete lesson	Admin
POST	api/admin/lessons/{id}/upload/pdf	Upload PDF	Admin
POST	api/admin/lessons/{id}/upload/video	Upload video	Admin
POST	api/admin/lessons/{id}/publish	Publish lesson	Admin

Admin — Assessments — api/admin/assessments

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/assessments	List assessments (paged)	Admin
GET	api/admin/assessments/{id}	Assessment detail	Admin
POST	api/admin/assessments	Create assessment	Admin
PUT	api/admin/assessments/{id}	Update assessment	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/assessments/{id}	Delete assessment	Admin
POST	api/admin/assessments/{id}/publish	Publish	Admin
POST	api/admin/assessments/{id}/unpublish	Unpublish	Admin
GET	api/admin/assessments/{id}/submissions	List submissions	Admin

Admin — Categories — api/admin/categories

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/categories	List categories with usage counts (paged)	Admin
GET	api/admin/categories/all	All categories (unpaged) — for course/assessment editor dropdowns	Admin
POST	api/admin/categories	Create category	Admin
PUT	api/admin/categories/{id}	Rename category	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/categories/{id}	Delete category — referencing courses/assessments become uncategorized, not hidden	Admin

Admin — Blog — api/admin/blog

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/blog	List articles (paged, searchable)	Admin
GET	api/admin/blog/{id}	Article detail	Admin
POST	api/admin/blog	Create article	Admin
PUT	api/admin/blog/{id}	Update article	Admin
POST	api/admin/blog/{id}/publish	Publish	Admin
POST	api/admin/blog/{id}/unpublish	Unpublish	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/blog/{id}	Delete article	Admin
POST	api/admin/blog/{id}/upload/cover	Upload cover image	Admin

Admin — Testimonials — api/admin/testimonials

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/testimonials	List testimonials (paged)	Admin
GET	api/admin/testimonials/{id}	Testimonial by id	Admin
POST	api/admin/testimonials	Create	Admin
PUT	api/admin/testimonials/{id}	Update	Admin
POST	api/admin/testimonials/{id}/toggle-active	Toggle active	Admin
POST	api/admin/testimonials/{id}/move-up	Move up	Admin
POST	api/admin/testimonials/{id}/move-down	Move down	Admin
POST	api/admin/testimonials/{id}/upload/avatar	Upload avatar	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/testimonials/{id}/avatar	Remove avatar	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/testimonials/{id}	Delete	Admin

Admin — Learning Paths — api/admin/paths

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/paths	List all learning paths (paged)	Admin
GET	api/admin/paths/{id}	Path detail with steps	Admin
POST	api/admin/paths	Create path (unpublished, no steps)	Admin
PUT	api/admin/paths/{id}	Update path details	Admin
POST	api/admin/paths/{id}/publish	Publish to the public catalog	Admin
POST	api/admin/paths/{id}/unpublish	Unpublish	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/paths/{id}	Delete path and its steps	Admin
POST	api/admin/paths/{id}/steps	Append a course as the next step	Admin
DELETE	api/admin/paths/{id}/steps/{stepId}	Remove a step (remaining steps re-sequenced)	Admin
POST	api/admin/paths/{id}/steps/{stepId}/move-up	Move a step one position earlier	Admin
POST	api/admin/paths/{id}/steps/{stepId}/move-down	Move a step one position later	Admin

Admin — Scheduled Sessions — api/admin/sessions

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/sessions	List all scheduled sessions (paged)	Admin
POST	api/admin/sessions	Create a session (the creating admin becomes host)	Admin
PUT	api/admin/sessions/{id}	Update session details	Admin
POST	api/admin/sessions/{id}/cancel	Cancel a session	Admin

Admin — Course Reviews — api/admin/course-reviews

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/course-reviews	Moderation queue (paged; ?status=Pending|Approved|Rejected)	Admin
POST	api/admin/course-reviews/{id}/approve	Approve — makes the review visible on the course page	Admin
POST	api/admin/course-reviews/{id}/reject	Reject a pending review	Admin

Admin — Analytics — api/admin/analytics

Method	Route	Description	Auth
GET	api/admin/analytics/summary	Dashboard summary	Admin

AI Assistant — api/assistant

Method	Route	Description	Auth
POST	api/assistant/chat?lang=en|el	Grounded, streaming answer — response is text/event-stream, not JSON (see AI Assistant)	Yes
GET	api/assistant/status	Whether the local model backend is reachable	Yes

Admin — AI Assistant — api/admin/assistant

Method	Route	Description	Auth
POST	api/admin/assistant/reindex	Re-index published content immediately instead of waiting for the next scheduled pass	Admin

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Roles

Role	Access
Admin	Full access — content authoring, user/role management, site settings
Student	Enroll in courses, follow learning paths, view lessons, take assessments, review courses, register for scheduled sessions, chat and call, manage profile/subscription, download certificates

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Configuration

All secrets are loaded from .env at startup (see .env.template). The .env file is gitignored — never commit it.

Key	Where	Notes
ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection	.env	Full SQL Server connection string. appsettings.json intentionally blank. Dev default (with TrustServerCertificate=True) is in appsettings.Development.json.
Jwt__Key	.env	≥ 32 bytes required — startup throws if shorter.
Jwt:AccessTokenExpirationMinutes	appsettings.json	Default 15.
Jwt:RefreshTokenExpirationDays	appsettings.json	Default 7.
AdminUser__Password	.env	Admin seed account password.
SeedData__StudentPassword	.env	Seed student password. Required when SeedData:Enabled = true.
Payment:MockEnabled	appsettings.Development.json	true in dev — skips real Stripe; uses mock checkout.
Payment__WebhookSecret	.env	Stripe HMAC signing secret. Leave unset in dev.
AllowedHosts	.env or env var	Default localhost;127.0.0.1. Set to your production domain (e.g. reset-your-future.com;www.reset-your-future.com) before deploying.
SelfBaseUrl	.env	The app's own real bound base address (used for its self-calling loopback API consumers). Defaults to https://localhost:7090 in Development only — startup throws outside Development if unset or still pointing at localhost.
Email__Smtp__Host (+ Port/Username/Password/FromAddress)	.env	SMTP relay for real email via SmtpEmailService (MailKit). Set it to send real mail; leave unset in Development to use the logging stub. Required outside Development — startup throws without it.
Assistant__Enabled / Assistant__BaseUrl	.env or appsettings.json	Toggle the local AI assistant (default on) and point it at a non-default Ollama host.

appsettings.Development.json: SeedData:Enabled, SeedData:BulkStudentCount, SeedData:JsonPaths:*, Payment:MockEnabled, dev connection string.

Production checklist: (see docs/DEPLOYMENT.md for the full detail behind the SelfBaseUrl/loopback-TLS, DataProtection key-ring, and email-transport items)

• ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production
• Real Jwt__Key (≥ 32 bytes), ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection (no TrustServerCertificate=True)
• AllowedHosts set to the production domain
• SelfBaseUrl set to the app's real bound address (startup throws otherwise)
• Email:Smtp:Host (+ credentials) configured so SmtpEmailService sends real email (startup throws in Production when no SMTP host is set)
• Payment__WebhookSecret set if Stripe webhooks are used — the webhook endpoint returns 503 without it and never skips signature verification. (Payment:MockEnabled is ignored outside Development, so mock checkout can't grant free upgrades in production.)
• Behind a reverse proxy (nginx/Caddy/IIS ARR/cloud LB terminating TLS): the app processes X-Forwarded-Proto/X-Forwarded-For automatically and trusts a loopback (same-host) proxy. For a proxy on a different host, list its IP(s) in ForwardedHeaders:KnownProxies — otherwise HTTPS redirects loop and the Secure auth cookie is refused.
• Persistent state outside the deploy folder so a redeploy isn't destructive: point Storage:UploadsPath (uploaded avatars/PDFs/videos) and Logging:File:Directory (log files) at durable paths; the database and DataProtection keys already live in SQL Server, not on disk.
• Migrations run automatically at startup (MigrateAsync, with bounded retry-with-backoff if the database isn't reachable yet); ensure the DB user has dbcreator or schema-alter rights on first deploy
• /health/live (process up, no dependency checks) and /health/ready (database + AI assistant status) are available for a load balancer/orchestrator to poll

Operating it: docs/runbook.md covers backup & restore, the update/migration procedure, and first-response steps for the likely incident scenarios (app won't start, empty pages, login/email/assistant failures, admin lockout).

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Email

The email transport is selected at startup from configuration:

• Email:Smtp:Host configured → SmtpEmailService (MailKit) sends real email — point it at a local catcher (Papercut/Mailhog) in Development or any SMTP relay (SES, SendGrid SMTP, etc.) in production. Settings live under Email:Smtp:* (host, port, StartTLS, credentials, from address).
• No SMTP host, Development → StubEmailService logs all emails to file instead of sending them — find links in Logs/log-YYYY-MM-DD.txt (search STUB EMAIL).
• No SMTP host, Production → the application throws at startup, so emails are never silently swallowed.

Dev shortcuts for bypassing email confirmation:

Endpoint	Purpose
POST api/auth/dev/confirm-email	Confirm email without a link
POST api/auth/dev/reset-password	Reset password without an email

⚠️ Both endpoints are wrapped in #if DEBUG and are not compiled into Release builds — they will 404 in production.

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Content Categories

Admins classify courses and assessments with a shared pool of categories, and students browse/filter the public Courses and Assessments pages by them.

• One category per item (nullable) drawn from a single shared pool used by both content types. Each category has bilingual names (NameEn required, NameEl optional, falling back to English).
• Authoring: pick a category in the course/assessment editor, or create one inline while authoring. A dedicated /admin/categories page manages the pool (create, rename, delete) with usage counts.
• Browsing: the public Courses and Assessments pages show a category chip on each card plus a filter bar of chips (with per-category counts) and a debounced search box. Both filters are applied server-side via the ?categoryId= and ?search= query params before pagination, so page totals stay correct.
• Deleting a category soft-deletes it and nulls the reference on any course/assessment that used it — that content becomes "uncategorized" and stays visible, never hidden.

Learning Paths

Curated, ordered sequences of courses that guide a student from one topic to the next.

• Authoring: an admin builds a path by appending published courses as ordered steps (reorderable and removable), then publishes it to the public catalog (api/admin/paths).
• Per-user progress: for a signed-in user each step is projected as locked, next, or done from their course completions, so the path shows exactly where to resume; anonymous visitors see the steps without progress.
• Bilingual: path titles and descriptions carry EN/EL like the rest of the content. The public catalog is api/paths.

Course Reviews

Enrolled students can leave a one-per-course rating and review, moderated before it appears publicly.

• Write: an enrolled user posts or edits their review (POST api/courses/{courseId}/reviews); any edit resets it to Pending for re-moderation. Admins cannot review courses.
• Read: the course page shows approved reviews, the aggregate star rating, and the caller's own review at whatever moderation status it's in (GET api/courses/{courseId}/reviews).
• Moderate: admins work an approve/reject queue (api/admin/course-reviews); approving a review notifies its author (see Notifications).

Video Calls

One-to-one and group video calls, started from the existing chat. Self-hosted WebRTC (peer-to-peer mesh, up to 6 participants) with SignalR (/hubs/call) handling only signaling — media flows browser-to-browser and never touches the server.

• Access: identical to chat — every authenticated user can make and receive calls, regardless of role or subscription tier.
• Features: mic mute, camera toggle, screen share, and call events (started / missed / ended + duration) persisted into chat history. If no camera is available (none present, or held by another app/browser on the same machine), the call joins audio-only instead of failing.
• "Ring anywhere": an incoming-call overlay pops up on any page via a single call-host component mounted in the layout. 1:1 calls start from the conversation header; group calls from a multi-select picker, and participants can be added mid-call.
• Reliability: a background CallRingMonitor times out unanswered rings (45 s default), reaps disconnected participants after a short grace period, and sweeps dangling sessions left by a server restart. Ring timeout, max participants, and ICE/STUN servers are configurable under the WebRtc section of appsettings.json.

Browser permissions: the site's Permissions-Policy header allows camera, microphone, and display-capture for same-origin so calls work; JWT for the call hub is passed as the access_token query-string parameter, same as the chat hub.

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Scheduled Sessions

Admin-scheduled live sessions (e.g. group counseling or Q&A) that users register for and join over the existing video-call stack.

• Schedule: an admin creates a session with a start time and becomes its host (api/admin/sessions); it can be updated or cancelled.
• Register: users see upcoming sessions and register or unregister (api/sessions). A background monitor sends registrants a reminder as the start time approaches (see Notifications).
• Join: when a participant starts the call, the client links the live call session back to the schedule (POST api/sessions/{id}/link-call) so everyone joins the same room.

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Presence & online status

Signed-in users show a live online/offline dot and a "last seen" time across the app — in the chat conversation sidebar, the chat and call user pickers, and the admin users list.

• How it's tracked: presence rides on the SignalR call hub that every user's browser already holds open (established globally by the call-host component). PresenceService seeds from the hub's online-user snapshot and updates live on PresenceChanged events, so status stays current without polling and re-seeds automatically after a reconnect.
• Last seen: each account persists a LastSeenAt timestamp (ApplicationUser.LastSeenAt); the UI renders it as a relative time ("last seen 5 min ago") and a live event overrides the stored value the moment a user goes offline.

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Notifications

An in-app notification inbox with a bell badge and live push over SignalR (/hubs/notifications), available to every authenticated user.

• What triggers one: a new chat message, a subscription activating or nearing expiry, an approaching scheduled-session reminder, a certificate being issued, and a course review being approved.
• Inbox: a paged, sortable history (api/notifications) with an unread count for the badge, plus mark-one-read and mark-all-read. New notifications arrive live without a refresh, falling back to the stored history on reconnect.
• Bilingual: titles and bodies are resource-keyed (EN/EL) and formatted with per-notification arguments, and each carries a deep link to the relevant page.

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AI Assistant

A grounded, bilingual (EN/EL) AI helper available to every authenticated user, regardless of subscription tier. It answers site questions from a background index of published courses, lessons, assessments, and blog articles, and — as a tool-calling agent — can look up the signed-in user's own enrollments, lesson progress, assessment results and subscription, plus search and recommend courses. Everything runs locally via Ollama — no cloud API, no per-token cost, no data leaves the machine.

Setup: the assistant needs Ollama running locally; everything after that is automatic (the app pulls the models itself). If the widget shows "Assistant unavailable — is Ollama installed and running?", work through these three steps.

1. Install Ollama — download from https://ollama.com/download, or on Windows:

   winget install Ollama.Ollama

   The installer starts Ollama and keeps it running in the background (look for its icon in the system tray).

2. Confirm it's actually running — this is exactly what the "is Ollama installed and running?" message checks. Open http://localhost:11434 in a browser (it should say "Ollama is running"), or run ollama list in a terminal. If nothing responds, start it: launch Ollama from the Start menu, or run ollama serve.

3. Run the app:

   dotnet run --project src/ResetYourFuture.Web

   On first start the app auto-pulls the two models it needs — qwen3:1.7b (chat, ≈ 1.4 GB) and bge-m3 (embeddings, ≈ 1.2 GB); ~2.6 GB total, one-time. The assistant widget shows live download progress and goes live the moment everything is ready.

You can install or start Ollama after the app is already running — it keeps probing and recovers on its own, no restart needed. To pull the models yourself instead (e.g. on a metered connection): ollama pull qwen3:1.7b && ollama pull bge-m3. If Ollama runs on a different machine or port, point the app at it with Assistant__BaseUrl (see the table below).

How it works: a background service chunks and embeds published content into an AssistantContentChunks table (incrementally — only re-embedding what changed). Each question embeds the query, retrieves the top matching chunks by cosine similarity, and injects them plus the user's tier and enrolled course titles into a scoped system prompt (RAG grounding). For questions about the user's own data, the model calls server-side tools (get_my_enrollments, get_my_progress, get_my_assessment_results, get_subscription_status, search_courses, recommend_courses); the authenticated identity is captured server-side — no tool accepts a user id, so prompt injection can never read another user's data, and raw assessment answers never reach the model. Replies stream to a floating chat widget over Server-Sent Events. The widget appears bottom-right on every page for signed-in users; when Ollama is unreachable or a model is downloading, it shows a live state instead, and the rest of the app is unaffected.

Key	Where	Default	Notes
Assistant__Enabled	.env / appsettings.json	true	Master switch. When false, the API and widget gracefully report the assistant as unavailable. Test hosts pin it off.
Assistant__BaseUrl	appsettings.json	http://localhost:11434	Ollama's default local address.
Assistant__ChatModel	appsettings.json	qwen3:1.7b	~1.4 GB. Multilingual (incl. Greek) with native tool calling. Alternatives: qwen3:4b on stronger hardware.
Assistant__EmbeddingModel	appsettings.json	bge-m3	~1.2 GB. Multilingual (EN/EL) retrieval embeddings.
Assistant__AutoPullModels	appsettings.json	true	Auto-download missing models at startup. Set false in restricted environments and pull manually.
Assistant__MaxContextChunks	appsettings.json	6	Retrieved chunks injected per question.
Assistant__MaxOutputTokens	appsettings.json	500	Caps answer length.
Assistant__Temperature	appsettings.json	0.3	Lower = more deterministic/grounded answers.
Assistant__RequestsPerMinute	appsettings.json	10	Per-user rate limit on POST api/assistant/chat.
Assistant__MaxToolRounds	appsettings.json	3	Caps tool-invocation rounds per request (loop guardrail).

Hardware guidance: runs CPU-only on any ~2020+ 4-core machine with 8 GB RAM — no GPU required. Expect a few seconds to the first token (streaming masks this); the 1.7B default model is comfortably faster than the previous 4B one.

Live smoke test (optional, needs Ollama running): RYF_OLLAMA_LIVE=1 dotnet test --filter AssistantLiveSmoke boots the app against local Ollama, waits for Ready, and asserts a real streamed answer. Without the variable the test self-passes, so CI never needs Ollama.

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Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
DB connection fails	sqllocaldb info MSSQLLocalDB. Verify connection string. If the instance is stopped: sqllocaldb start MSSQLLocalDB.
Database missing / dropped	Just restart the app — MigrateAsync at startup recreates and reseeds it automatically.
Adding a new migration	dotnet ef migrations add <Name> --project src/ResetYourFuture.Infrastructure --startup-project src/ResetYourFuture.Web — then restart; migrations apply on next run.
Seed data missing	SeedData:Enabled = true in appsettings.Development.json.
Email link not found	Search STUB EMAIL in Logs/log-<today>.txt or use dev endpoints.
Role-based page inaccessible	Check AspNetUserRoles table. Admin pages require Admin role.
Chat not connecting	JWT via access_token query string. Check token expiry (default 15 min) — use api/auth/refresh to rotate.
Video call has no camera/mic	Grant the browser camera/microphone permission for the site, and use HTTPS (WebRTC requires a secure context). When testing with two browsers on one PC, only one can hold the physical webcam — the other joins audio-only (expected).
401 after login	Match Jwt:Key/Issuer/Audience. Disabled accounts return X-User-Disabled: true.
HTTPS not trusted	dotnet dev-certs https --trust
Assistant shows "is Ollama installed and running?"	Ollama isn't reachable at http://localhost:11434. Install it (winget install Ollama.Ollama) and make sure it's running — open http://localhost:11434 (should say "Ollama is running") or run ollama list; if not, start it via the Ollama app or ollama serve. The app re-probes automatically and recovers without a restart. See the AI Assistant setup steps.
Assistant stuck "downloading its model"	Normal on first run (~2.6 GB total). Progress shows in the widget and in Logs/. On a metered/blocked network set Assistant__AutoPullModels=false and pull manually: ollama pull qwen3:1.7b && ollama pull bge-m3.
Assistant's first answer is slow	Expected — Ollama cold-loads the model into memory on first request after startup/idle. Subsequent answers are faster.

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Security

Feature	Details
Auth cookies	HttpOnly, SameSite=Strict, Secure (non-dev), 24 h sliding window, 7-day MaxAge hard cap
JWT tokens	HS256, 15-min expiry, security-stamp validated on every request, key ≥ 32 bytes enforced at startup
Refresh tokens	SHA-256-hashed, single-use rotation; revoked token chain tracked
XSS prevention	All rich-text inputs sanitised with Ganss.Xss (IHtmlSanitizer)
Rate limiting	"auth" policy (global) on register / login / confirm-email / forgot-password / reset-password; "assistant" and "sensitive" policies (per-user) on the AI chat endpoint and on state-changing account actions (password change, avatar upload, checkout, assessment submission, account delete/export)
HSTS	Enabled in Production; skipped in Development
Security headers	X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff, X-Frame-Options: DENY, Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin, Permissions-Policy (camera/microphone/display-capture allowed same-origin for video calls; geolocation denied)
File uploads	Content-type allowlist enforced per upload type (image / PDF / video); extension allowlist on media serve
Sitemap	Slugs XML-escaped via SecurityElement.Escape()
Account enumeration	Login, forgot-password, reset-password all return generic messages; duplicate-email registration mapped to generic error
Sensitive data at rest	Special-category assessment answers (AnswersJson/SummaryJson) encrypted at rest via ASP.NET Core Data Protection (transparent EF value converter); the Data Protection key ring is persisted to the database
GDPR posture	Bilingual Privacy Policy (/privacy) and Terms (/terms) linked from the registration consent and the landing footer; registration requires explicit consent with captured timestamp; self-service account erasure and "download my data" export from the Profile page; expired refresh tokens purged on a background sweep

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Logging

Daily rotating log files at src/ResetYourFuture.Web/Logs/log-YYYY-MM-DD.txt. The Logs/ directory and all *.log files are gitignored.

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License

Released under the MIT License — © 2026 s070s. Third-party dependencies keep their own licenses; note that QuestPDF is used under its Community tier, whose eligibility is conditional on the vendor's annual-revenue threshold (see CertificateService.cs).