TrustBite

TrustBite is a hyperlocal mess and tiffin discovery platform designed for college students living away from home. It helps students find reliable meal services using hygiene scores, real reviews, and AI-based recommendations.

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Problem

College students in towns like Shirpur often struggle to find trustworthy mess or tiffin services. Information about hygiene, pricing, and food quality is scattered and based on word-of-mouth.

Students waste time and money trying unreliable options.

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Solution

TrustBite provides a centralized platform where students can:

• Discover nearby mess and tiffin services
• View admin-verified hygiene scores
• Read real student reviews
• Get AI-based personalized recommendations

Goal: A student should be able to find a reliable mess in under 5 minutes.

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Core Features

Student

• Register and login
• Browse nearby mess listings
• View hygiene scores and ratings
• Submit reviews
• Save favourite messes
• Get AI-based recommendations

Mess Owner

• Register as a service provider
• Create and manage mess listings
• Update menu and pricing
• Upload photos

Admin

• Approve or reject mess listings
• Assign hygiene scores
• Moderate reviews
• Manage users

AI Recommendation

• Content-based recommendation system
• Uses mess attributes and student preferences
• Cosine similarity–based ranking
• Popularity-based fallback for new users

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Tech Stack

Frontend

• React + Vite
• Tailwind CSS
• shadcn/ui
• React Hook Form + Zod
• Zustand (state management)
• Hosted on Vercel

Backend

• Python 3.11
• FastAPI
• SQLAlchemy
• Alembic migrations
• JWT authentication
• Hosted on Railway

Database

• PostgreSQL (Railway managed)

AI Module

• Scikit-learn
• Pandas
• NumPy
• Content-based recommendation engine

DevOps

• GitHub for version control
• GitHub Actions for CI
• Vercel and Railway for automatic deployments

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System Architecture

TrustBite follows a 3-tier monolithic architecture:

1. Frontend (React SPA)

   • Hosted on Vercel
   • Communicates with backend via REST APIs

2. Backend (FastAPI)

   • Handles authentication, business logic, and APIs
   • Integrates AI recommendation module

3. Database (PostgreSQL)

   • Stores users, messes, reviews, menus, and favourites

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Core User Flow

1. Mess owner registers and creates a listing.
2. Admin reviews and assigns a hygiene score.
3. Student logs in.
4. Student browses approved messes.
5. Student reads reviews and ratings.
6. AI recommends top messes.
7. Student chooses a mess.

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Project Structure

Backend

backend/
├── main.py
├── config.py
├── database.py
├── models/
├── schemas/
├── routers/
├── services/
├── ai/
├── migrations/
└── requirements.txt

Frontend

frontend/
├── src/
│   ├── pages/
│   ├── components/
│   ├── hooks/
│   ├── store/
│   ├── lib/
│   └── styles/
├── index.html
├── vite.config.js
└── tailwind.config.js

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Local Development Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• Python 3.11+
• PostgreSQL

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1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/trustbite.git
cd trustbite

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2. Backend Setup

cd backend

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate   # Mac/Linux
venv\Scripts\activate      # Windows

pip install -r requirements.txt

Create a .env file:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/trustbite
JWT_SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key

Run migrations:

alembic upgrade head

Start backend:

uvicorn main:app --reload

Backend runs at:

http://localhost:8000

API docs:

http://localhost:8000/docs

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3. Frontend Setup

cd frontend
npm install

Create .env file:

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:8000/api/v1

Start frontend:

npm run dev

Frontend runs at:

http://localhost:5173

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Deployment

Frontend

• Hosted on Vercel
• Auto-deploy on push to main

Backend

• Hosted on Railway
• Auto-deploy on push to main

Database

• PostgreSQL via Railway

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Environment Variables

Backend

DATABASE_URL=
JWT_SECRET_KEY=
JWT_ALGORITHM=HS256
JWT_EXPIRE_MINUTES=10080
CORS_ORIGINS=
CLOUDINARY_URL=

Frontend

VITE_API_URL=

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Team

Member	Role
Dipak	Tech Lead + Backend
Prachi	Frontend Lead
Bhushan	AI Engineer
Aakanksha	Admin UI + QA

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Project Goals

• Production-style architecture
• Fully deployed public system
• Real AI-based feature
• Clean UI and UX
• Resume-worthy engineering project

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License

This project is developed as part of an academic semester project. License to be decided by the team.