Infrastructure
This page covers the shared platform pieces the backend runs on — the datastore, background-job queue, rate limiting, and logging that every feature relies on. For the third-party service integrations built on top of this (S3, email, SMS, push, analytics, LiveKit, etc.), see Services. For how local/development/production deployments differ, see Deployment Environments.
Redis
Redis powers several real-time features:
| Usage | Details |
|---|---|
| Online presence | setUserOnline(userId) with 5-minute TTL, renewed on each heartbeat |
| Chat cache | chat-cache.service.js caches recent messages and conversation metadata |
| SMS code cache | Stores OTP codes for verification with TTL |
| BullMQ queues | Notification worker job queue |
| Pub/Sub | pubsub.service.js powers GraphQL subscriptions via Redis pub/sub |
Rate limiting
services/rate-limiter.service.js provides in-memory rate limiting for admin and API actions. Limits are defined in constants/RATE_LIMITS as { max, windowMs } pairs. In production, a Redis-backed implementation is recommended for multi-instance deployments.
Logging
services/logger/ provides a centralized structured logger used across all services and managers. Log levels: debug, info, warn, error.
Environment variables summary
| Variable | Purpose |
|---|---|
REDIS_HOST / REDIS_PORT / REDIS_PASSWORD | Redis + BullMQ |
MAX_FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS | Admin lockout threshold |
See the Services page for the env vars specific to S3, SES, SMS, analytics, and LiveKit.