🧩 Realtime Chat Application

A simple real-time chat app built using the MERN stack, Socket.IO, and Zustand for global state management. This project was developed by following a YouTube tutorial to better understand full-stack development and real-time communication in web apps.

🚀 Features

• Real-Time Messaging: Send and receive messages instantly with WebSocket using Socket.IO
• Global State Management: Clean and scalable state handling using Zustand
• Responsive UI: Built with React for a smooth and interactive user experience
• Backend API: RESTful API using Node.js + Express
• Data Storage: User and message data stored in MongoDB

🔧 Technologies Used

Frontend

• React
• Zustand
• Socket.IO Client

Backend

• Node.js
• Express
• MongoDB (with Mongoose)
• Socket.IO

📦 Environment Variables

To run this project, you'll need to set up the following environment variables in a .env file:

PORT=8000
MONGO_DB_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
NODE_ENV=development