CodePath — Self-Hosted Learning Portal

A gamified, single-user web portal that curates the best free full-stack courses into one calm, tracked path. Read focus notes, follow the linked resource (YouTube / freeCodeCamp / Scrimba / react.dev …), take grounded quizzes, and earn XP, streaks, and badges as you go.

Progress is saved by a tiny built-in backend (one JSON file on disk), so it survives clearing your browser and follows you across devices on the same deployment. No login, no external database.

Run it on your server (Docker — the easy way)

docker compose up -d --build

Then open http://localhost:8080 (or http://your-server-ip:8080). That's it.

Progress is stored in a named Docker volume (codepath-data) mounted at /data, so it survives docker compose up -d --build rebuilds and restarts. To stop: docker compose down (add -v to also wipe saved progress).

Put it behind your existing reverse proxy (Caddy/Nginx/Traefik) to add a domain + HTTPS. The app uses hash-based routing, so it works behind any path with zero extra config.

Or pull the prebuilt image

Every push to main builds and publishes a Docker image to GitHub Container Registry via the docker GitHub Action (.github/workflows/docker.yml):

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -v codepath-data:/data ghcr.io/<owner>/<repo>:latest

Run it locally (without Docker)

npm install
npm run dev      # Vite dev server with hot reload (progress falls back to localStorage)
# or, to run the real backend:
npm run build && node server.js   # serves the built app + progress API on :8080

How it's built

• Vite + React SPA, Tailwind for styling, react-markdown to render the course content.
• Backend: server.js — a dependency-free Node server that serves the built dist/ and a two-route progress API (GET/PUT /api/progress) backed by a single JSON file (DATA_FILE).
• Progress (XP, level, streak, badges, completed lessons, quiz scores) is saved to the backend; localStorage is kept only as a fast local cache for instant first paint. Persistence is isolated in src/lib/persistence.js. You can also back it up via Settings → Export / Import progress.
• Content is a presentation layer: sessions curate a real resource + focus notes + a grounded quiz. Edit content under src/content/ and rebuild to publish.

Structure

server.js         # backend: serves dist/ + GET/PUT /api/progress (no deps)
src/
  content/        # the course content (curated sessions, cheat-sheets, projects, how-to-learn)
  data/
    curriculum.js # phase order + metadata (single source of truth)
    quizzes/      # one grounded end-of-phase quiz JSON per phase
  lib/
    persistence.js # storage adapter (server + localStorage cache) — the only place that touches storage
    progress.jsx   # gamification store (XP, level, streak, badges, resume)
  components/     # Layout, Markdown renderer, UI primitives, block renderer
  pages/          # Dashboard, PhaseOverview, StructuredLesson, Quiz, Projects, Cheatsheets, …
scripts/          # verify.mjs (lint/extract) + checklinks.sh (link liveness) — run before publishing