Match. Build. Ship.
Ghost-Collab is a student-first collaboration platform that helps university students find project collaborators based on roles, skills, and availability — not just social connections.
Think Tinder for side projects, but instead of swiping on people, you swipe on ideas and roles.
Students often have strong side-project ideas but struggle to find collaborators outside their immediate circle.
- A CS student needs a Designer
- A Bio student needs an AI developer
- A solo builder needs a Marketing or Product partner
Platforms like LinkedIn feel too corporate, and WhatsApp/Discord groups are chaotic and unstructured.
Ghost-Collab enables students to:
- Discover projects that need their skills
- Match based on complementary roles, not popularity
- Quickly move from match → real-world meeting
- Collaborate without unnecessary social noise
No feeds. No DMs. Just building.
- Secure sign-in using Firebase Authentication
- Restricted to
.edu/ university email domains
Profiles are designed as working resumes, not social bios:
- Role identity (Developer, Designer, Researcher, etc.)
- Skills & tools
- Availability & weekly commitment
- Collaboration style preferences
- Profile completeness indicator
Users swipe on project cards, not people.
Each project includes:
- Vision & problem statement
- Required roles
- Expected commitment
- Tech stack (optional)
- Project stage (Idea / Prototype / MVP)
Every match % is explainable, based on:
- Skill overlap or complementarity
- Time availability
- Project duration preference
- Shared interests
Users can see why a match exists.
Using the Gemini API:
- Suggests complementary collaborators
- Recommends projects users are well-suited for
- Improves clarity of project descriptions
- Sends weekly opportunity digests
Example:
“A Bio student just posted about Hive Monitoring — your AI skills could help.”
- Integrated with Google Calendar API
- Automatically finds mutual free slots
- One-click meeting creation (no chatting required)
Ghost-Collab avoids distractions:
- No messaging system
- No public feeds
- No likes or follower counts
The focus is execution, not engagement farming.
- React
- Tailwind CSS
- Node.js
- Express.js
- Firebase (Auth + Database)
- Firebase Authentication
- Gemini API (AI matching & recommendations)
- Google Calendar API
✅ Landing page with authentication
✅ Innovation board with developer/project cards
✅ Match percentage logic
🚧 Profile setup flow (in progress)
🚧 Project posting & refinement
🚧 Calendar-based meeting scheduling
- Collaboration history & credibility badges
- Lightweight reputation signals
- Team workspaces for matched collaborators
- Analytics dashboard for builders
- Mobile-first UI optimization
- Messaging systems (reduces noise & moderation overhead)
- Social feeds
- Public comments
- Rating/review systems
Ghost-Collab is not a social network — it's a builder network.
- University students
- Hackathon participants
- Solo builders
- Early-stage startup enthusiasts
- Anyone who wants to build, not scroll
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Run development server
npm run devConfigure Firebase and other services:
# Interactive setup
npm run setup:firebaseOr manually edit .env.local with your credentials.
See QUICK_START.md for the 3-step setup guide.
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
| QUICK_START.md | Quick 3-step setup guide |
| PRODUCTION_SETUP.md | Complete production deployment |
| FIREBASE_SETUP.md | Firebase configuration details |
| SETUP_README.md | Troubleshooting & status |
- Next.js 15 - React framework with App Router
- React 19 - UI library
- Tailwind CSS v4 - Styling
- shadcn/ui - UI components
- Framer Motion - Animations
- Three.js - 3D background effects
- Node.js + Express.js
- Firebase Admin SDK - Server-side operations
- Firestore - Database
- Firebase Authentication - User auth
- Firebase Auth - Google + Email/Password sign-in
- Gemini API - AI-powered match analysis
- Resend/SendGrid - Email notifications
Half_Stack_Developers/
├── app/
│ ├── api/ # API routes
│ │ ├── gemini/ # AI alignment API
│ │ └── meetups/ # Meetup email API
│ ├── dashboard/ # Protected dashboard pages
│ │ ├── components/ # Dashboard UI components
│ │ ├── add-project/ # Create project page
│ │ └── meetups/schedule/ # Schedule meetup page
│ ├── pages/ # Landing page components
│ ├── layout.tsx # Root layout
│ └── page.tsx # Home page
├── backend/ # Express backend
│ ├── middleware/ # Auth middleware
│ ├── routes/ # API routes
│ └── firebaseAdmin.js # Firebase Admin init
├── components/ # React components
├── contexts/ # React Context (Auth)
├── lib/ # Utilities
│ ├── firebase-admin.ts # Server-side Firebase
│ ├── firebase-client.ts # Client-side Firebase
│ └── email/ # Email templates
├── hooks/ # Custom React hooks
└── scripts/ # Setup scripts
Required for production:
# Firebase Client SDK
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_API_KEY=
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID=
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_AUTH_DOMAIN=
# Firebase Admin SDK
FIREBASE_CLIENT_EMAIL=
FIREBASE_PRIVATE_KEY=
# Services
GEMINI_API_KEY=
RESEND_API_KEY=See .env.example for full list.
# Push to Git
git push origin main
# Then in Vercel dashboard:
# 1. Import repository
# 2. Add environment variables
# 3. DeployEnvironment variables needed in Vercel:
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_PROJECT_IDFIREBASE_CLIENT_EMAILFIREBASE_PRIVATE_KEYGEMINI_API_KEYRESEND_API_KEY
See PRODUCTION_SETUP.md for detailed deployment guide.
MIT License - feel free to use this for your own projects!
Built with ❤️ for student developers.