bill-organizer-setup-env

name	bill-organizer:setup-env
description	Interactive walkthrough to configure all .env variables for the Smart Bill Organizer. Activates when user needs to set up API keys, Cloudinary, MongoDB URI, or any environment variables for this project.

Setup Environment Variables — Bill Organizer

Walk the user through each required environment variable from server/.env.example, one at a time. Do NOT just dump the template — ask for each value interactively.

Required Variables

1. MongoDB Connection

MONGODB_URI=mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/bill-organizer

• If local: use mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/bill-organizer (not localhost — avoids IPv6 issues)
• If Atlas: use mongodb+srv://<user>:<pass>@<cluster>.mongodb.net/bill-organizer?retryWrites=true&w=majority
• If neither is available: the app auto-falls-back to mongodb-memory-server (in-memory, data lost on restart)
• Ask: "Local MongoDB, Atlas, or use auto-fallback?"

2. Server Port

PORT=5000

• Default 5000 is fine unless the user has a conflict. Ask if they want a different port.

3. Cloudinary (Image Storage)

CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=<cloud-name>
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=<api-key>
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=<api-secret>

• Get these from: https://console.cloudinary.com/app/settings/api-keys
• Or use the single-connection-string form: CLOUDINARY_URL=cloudinary://API_KEY:API_SECRET@CLOUD_NAME
• Cloud name: found at the top of your Cloudinary dashboard
• API secret: click the eye icon to reveal it — treat like a password
• Remind: these keys should NEVER be committed to git (already in .gitignore)

4. Cohere API Key

COHERE_API_KEY=<key-from-dashboard.cohere.com>

• Get from: https://dashboard.cohere.com/api-keys
• This is a simple string (not a JSON object or service account)
• Model string to use: command-a-plus-05-2026

5. JWT Secret

JWT_SECRET=<random-256-bit-secret>

• Generate a random secret: node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(64).toString('hex'))"
• Used to sign and verify JWT tokens for user authentication
• Keep this secret — do NOT commit

After Writing .env

Verify with:

cd server && node -e "import 'dotenv/config'; console.log('MONGODB_URI:', process.env.MONGODB_URI ? '✓ set' : '✗ MISSING'); console.log('CLOUDINARY:', process.env.CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME ? '✓ set' : '✗ MISSING'); console.log('COHERE_KEY:', process.env.COHERE_API_KEY ? '✓ set' : '✗ MISSING'); console.log('JWT_SECRET:', process.env.JWT_SECRET ? '✓ set' : '✗ MISSING'); console.log('PORT:', process.env.PORT || 5000); console.log('OCR: Tesseract.js (offline — no API key needed)')"

Anti-Pattern Warnings

• ❌ localhost instead of 127.0.0.1 in MongoDB URI
• ❌ useNewUrlParser, useUnifiedTopology in Mongoose options (removed in v6+)
• ❌ Using upload() with a Buffer instead of upload_stream() in Cloudinary
• ❌ command-nightly in production (use command-a-plus-05-2026)
• ❌ CohereClient (v1) instead of CohereClientV2 (v2)
• ❌ Tesseract.js single worker — the app uses a scheduler pool automatically, no env config needed