RACKSTACK server

Self-hosted version of the game: Discord/GitHub OAuth login, SQLite for persistence, and server-authoritative offline progress (hard-capped at 72 hours regardless of upgrades).

Architecture

• server/ - Express API. Passport handles the Discord/GitHub OAuth handshake; on success we issue our own JWT in an httpOnly cookie (no server-side session store needed). SQLite (better-sqlite3) holds two tables: users and saves (one JSON blob per user).
• server/gameLogic.js - a server-side mirror of the client's production math, used only to compute how much a player produced while away. If you change tier costs, production rates, or upgrade effects in client/src/RackStack.jsx, mirror the change here too, or offline and online production will drift apart.
• client/ - the game itself (Vite + React + Tailwind + lucide-react), talking to the API instead of browser storage.

Offline progress works like this: the client ticks production locally in real time while a tab is open and POSTs its state to /api/save every 5s. On next load (GET /api/save), the server computes elapsed time since the last save, capped at 72h, applies the same production formulas, persists the caught-up result, and returns it - the client just displays what it's given. There's no always-on background worker simulating idle games 24/7; that's unnecessary for an idle game and would just waste resources.

1. Create OAuth apps

Discord: https://discord.com/developers/applications -> New Application -> OAuth2 -> add a redirect URI: https://<your-domain>/auth/discord/callback -> copy the Client ID and Client Secret.

GitHub: https://github.com/settings/developers -> New OAuth App -> Authorization callback URL: https://<your-domain>/auth/github/callback -> copy the Client ID and Client Secret.

You only need to configure the provider(s) you actually want to use - leave the other's ID/SECRET blank in .env and its login button will just fail if clicked (harmless, but you may want to hide it later).

2. Configure

cp .env.example .env
openssl rand -hex 32   # paste the output in as JWT_SECRET
# fill in DISCORD_/GITHUB_ client id, secret, and callback URLs

The callback URLs must exactly match what you registered with Discord/GitHub, including the scheme (https://) - if you're putting this behind the Cloudflare tunnel you already use for other services, point a subdomain at this container and use that in both places.

3. Run with Docker Compose

docker compose up -d --build

This builds the client, starts the server on port 3000 (mapped in docker-compose.yml - change the host side if you want a different port), and persists the SQLite file to ./data/rackstack.db via a bind-mounted volume, so it survives container rebuilds.

Point your reverse proxy / Cloudflare tunnel at http://<host>:3000.

Running on Unraid (prebuilt image)

Every push of a vX.Y.Z git tag builds and publishes a multi-tag image to GitHub Container Registry via .github/workflows/docker-publish.yml:

• ghcr.io/neverendingcode/rackstack-server:latest
• ghcr.io/neverendingcode/rackstack-server:vX.Y.Z

No Docker Hub account needed - GHCR authenticates with the repo's own GITHUB_TOKEN, and the package is public, so Unraid can pull it with no credentials.

Install: in Unraid's Docker tab, "Add Container" -> "Template repositories" -> add https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NeverEndingCode/rackstack-server/main/unraid-template.xml, or fill the fields in by hand using unraid-template.xml as a reference. Two things matter for updates to be safe:

• Data path must be a stable host path (e.g. /mnt/user/appdata/rackstack-server/data) mapped to the container's /app/data - this holds the entire SQLite database (saves + users) and is untouched by "Apply Update," since that only swaps the image and reuses the existing volume/variable config.
• JWT_SECRET must be set once as a container Variable and never changed afterward - it signs the 90-day login cookie, so rotating it logs every user out (no data loss, just re-login required). The other OAuth variables mirror .env.example.

Once installed this way, updates are just Unraid's Docker tab -> "Check for Updates" / "Apply Update" whenever a new :latest digest is published.

Cutting a release: bump version in package.json and client/package.json, commit, then:

git tag vX.Y.Z
git push --tags

The Actions workflow builds and pushes automatically.

Local development (without Docker)

Two processes:

# terminal 1 - API server
cp .env.example .env   # fill in values, DISCORD/GITHUB callback URLs can be http://localhost:3000/auth/.../callback for local testing
npm install
npm run dev

# terminal 2 - client with hot reload, proxies /api and /auth to :3000
cd client
npm install
npm run dev

Visit the client dev server's printed URL (usually http://localhost:5173).

Notes / things worth knowing

• SQLite, not Postgres: chosen for zero-config, single-file persistence that's trivial to back up (cp data/rackstack.db data/rackstack.db.bak). Fine for a personal or small-group deployment. If you outgrow it (many concurrent users, wanting replication, etc.), the server/db.js module is the only place that touches the database - swapping it for a pg version behind the same function signatures (upsertUser, getSave, putSave, deleteSave) wouldn't require touching routes or game logic at all.
• JWT cookie, not sessions: avoids needing a session store. The cookie is httpOnly and secure in production, valid for 90 days.
• Multi-user by default: every Discord/GitHub login gets its own save, keyed by provider:providerId. If you want this to be just-you, nothing extra to do - your account is simply the only one with data.
• 72h offline cap is a hard ceiling in gameLogic.js (OFFLINE_CAP_HOURS), applied on top of whatever the Extended Uptime upgrade computes, so no upgrade or future change can push past it.