TravelDex

TravelDex is an AI-assisted trip planning web app powered by Gemini and Google Maps APIs.
It runs as a single Express server that serves the frontend and proxies API requests so keys are managed on the backend.

Features

• AI itinerary generation with Gemini (/api/gemini/generateContent)
• Place text search, nearby search, and place details (Google Places)
• Address/coordinate geocoding (Google Geocoding)
• Route computation with optional waypoint optimization (Google Routes)
• Health endpoint for deployment checks (/health)

Tech stack

• Node.js + Express
• Vanilla frontend served from public/
• Tailwind CSS build pipeline
• Google Maps Platform + Gemini API integration

Quick start

1. Install dependencies:

npm install

2. Create local environment file:

copy .env.example .env

3. Fill real API keys in .env.
4. Build frontend CSS:

npm run build

5. Start the server:

npm start

App runs at http://localhost:3000.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Purpose
GEMINI_API_KEY	Yes	Gemini content generation
GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY	Yes	Browser key used by Maps JavaScript API
GOOGLE_MAPS_SERVER_API_KEY	Recommended	Server-side key for Places/Routes/Geocoding (falls back to GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY)
GEMINI_MODEL	Optional	Defaults to gemini-2.5-flash
GOOGLE_MAPS_MAP_ID	Optional	Defaults to DEMO_MAP_ID
PORT	Optional	Server port (default 3000)

Scripts

• npm run build - rebuild Tailwind output (public/tailwind.generated.css)
• npm start - run prestart build, then launch Express server
• npm run dev - start server without prestart script
• npm run check - syntax check server.js

API surface

• GET /health
• GET /api/config
• POST /api/gemini/generateContent
• POST /api/maps/search-text
• POST /api/maps/nearby
• GET /api/maps/place-details/:placeId
• GET /api/maps/geocode
• POST /api/maps/route

Security notes

• Keep real keys only in .env (already git-ignored).
• Commit placeholders only in .env.example.
• If any keys were ever exposed in history, rotate them before making the repository public.