Frontend installation (Nuxt)

The frontend is a Nuxt 4 application using SSR (nuxt build + Node server). It communicates with Laravel via Sanctum cookie authentication.

Step 1 - Install dependencies

cd /path/to/frontend
npm install

pnpm, yarn, or bun also work if you adapt lockfiles.

Step 2 - Environment file

Copy the example file included in the package:

cp .env.example .env

Edit frontend/.env:

# Public URL where users open the Nuxt app (no trailing slash)
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:4000

# Laravel API origin (no trailing slash) - must match APP_URL on backend
API_URL=http://localhost:8000

Variable	Purpose
FRONTEND_URL	Used in runtimeConfig.public.baseUrl
API_URL	API requests + Sanctum CSRF/login (runtimeConfig.public.apiUrl)

Production example:

FRONTEND_URL=https://yourdomain.com
API_URL=https://api.yourdomain.com

WARNING

API_URL must be the backend origin only, not /api. The app appends /api/... automatically.

Step 3 - Development server

npm run dev

Default script (package.json):

"dev": "nuxt dev -p 4000 --host"

Open http://localhost:4000.

Step 4 - Production build

Configure .env before building

Nuxt reads FRONTEND_URL and API_URL at build time. Run cp .env.example .env, set your production URLs, then build. If you change URLs later, edit .env and run npm run build again.

npm run build

Output is written to .output/.

Run production server locally

npm run start

Uses:

HOST=0.0.0.0 PORT=3000 node .output/server/index.mjs

Set PORT and HOST via environment on your host.

Step 5 - Sanctum / auth module

The project uses nuxt-auth-sanctum with cookie mode. Relevant settings in nuxt.config.ts:

Setting	Value
Login endpoint	/api/auth/signin
Logout	/api/auth/logout
User	/api/user
CSRF	/sanctum/csrf-cookie

After login, admins redirect to /admin; users to /dashboard (see pages/signin.vue).

Route protection: middleware/auth.global.ts guards /admin and /dashboard.

Step 6 - Verify frontend → API

1. Open browser devtools → Network.
2. Load the homepage - requests should go to {API_URL}/api/....
3. Sign in - you should see sanctum/csrf-cookie then api/auth/signin.
4. Session cookie laravel_session (name may vary) set on API domain.

If requests fail with CORS errors, fix CORS & Sanctum.

First account = admin

There is no built-in admin password. The first account you create at /signup is automatically admin while no administrator exists. Register yourself before the site is public - see First admin account.

Robots & sitemap (Nuxt server routes)

The frontend serves:

• /robots.txt - from admin SEO settings (proxied/fetched from API)
• /sitemap.xml - dynamic sitemap

Ensure your production reverse proxy forwards these routes to the Nuxt server.

Next step

• Database (if not done on backend)
• First admin account