Pray The Faith

A simple, beautiful site to help people pray the rosary: guided prayers, mysteries for today, scripture readings, and community encouragement.

Stack

• Frontend: Preact + Vite + TypeScript
• Backend: Vercel serverless API + Supabase (Postgres)
• MCP: Optional separate MCP server repo for moderating encouragement submissions via an AI agent

Local development

1. Install dependencies: npm install
2. Run the dev server: npm run dev
3. Open http://localhost:5173

For the encouragement and readings API to work, you need a Postgres database and environment variables (see below). Without them, the app still runs; encouragement will show empty and readings will be empty.

Database (Supabase)

1. Create a project at Supabase.
2. In Project Settings → Database, copy the Connection string (use Connection pooling / Transaction mode, port 6543, for serverless).
3. Run the schema and seed (with the URI you copied):

   psql "postgresql://postgres.[ref]:[PASSWORD]@...pooler.supabase.com:6543/postgres" -f scripts/schema.sql
   psql "..." -f scripts/seed-readings.sql   # optional

4. Put the connection string in POSTGRES_URL (see Where to put API keys below).

Where to put API keys

Local development

• Create a file .env or .env.local in the project root (same folder as package.json).
• Add your variables there. These files are gitignored and will not be committed.
• Example:

  POSTGRES_URL=postgresql://postgres.xxxx:YOUR_PASSWORD@aws-0-us-east-1.pooler.supabase.com:6543/postgres
  MCP_API_KEY=your-secret

• For the frontend only, you can also set VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:5173 if you need to point at a different API.

Production (Vercel)

• In the Vercel dashboard: your project → Settings → Environment Variables.
• Add POSTGRES_URL (your Supabase connection string) and MCP_API_KEY for Production (and Preview if you want).
• Never commit real keys to the repo; use .env locally and Vercel’s UI in production.

Environment variables

Vercel (production) and local (.env / .env.local)

• POSTGRES_URL – Supabase connection string (Database → Connection string, pooling recommended)
• MCP_API_KEY – Secret for MCP-only endpoints (list/approve/reject encouragements). Use the same value in your MCP client.

Frontend (optional)

• VITE_API_URL – Base URL of the API (e.g. https://your-app.vercel.app). Omit to use same origin.

MCP server (in the separate PrayTheFaith-MCP repo)

• PRAY_THE_FAITH_API_URL – Deployed site URL
• MCP_API_KEY – Same as in Vercel

Hero background

The home and menu use a full-bleed background image. Add your own image at public/landscape.jpg (or update the URL in src/index.css). Without it, the hero uses a light grey background.

Deploy on Vercel

1. Connect the repo to Vercel.
2. In Settings → Environment Variables, add POSTGRES_URL (your Supabase connection string) and MCP_API_KEY if you use the MCP server.
3. Deploy. The api/ folder is deployed as serverless functions automatically.

MCP server (optional)

The MCP server lives in a separate repo for compartmentalization. Clone and configure it so an AI agent (e.g. in Cursor) can list, approve, and reject encouragement submissions. See PrayTheFaith-MCP.