Backend API Overview

Node.js API running on AWS ECS + EC2

Overview

The Grouple backend API is a Node.js/TypeScript server running in Docker containers on AWS ECS, behind an Application Load Balancer.

Infrastructure

Route 53 (api.grouple.pro)
        ↓
Application Load Balancer (grouple-api-lb)
  ├── HTTP → redirects to HTTPS
  └── HTTPS → SSL terminated via ACM Certificate
        ↓
ECS Cluster (grouple-api-cluster)
  └── Auto Scaling Group (EC2 instances)
      └── ECS Tasks (API Containers)
          └── Docker image pulled from ECR (grouple-api)

Server Entry Point

server/index.ts — main Express server server/node-build.ts — build script server/routes/demo.ts — route definitions

Authentication

All API requests require a valid Supabase JWT passed as:

Authorization: Bearer <supabase_jwt>

The API validates JWT against Supabase Auth before processing requests.

Environment & Secrets

• Environment variables injected at runtime by AWS Secrets Manager
• Supabase URL and service role key
• Amazon Bedrock credentials
• Other third-party service keys

Deployment

GitHub push to main
        ↓
GitHub Actions (github-actions-user IAM)
        ↓
Build Docker image → push to ECR (grouple-api)
        ↓
ECS rolling deployment → new task definitions
        ↓
ALB routes traffic to new containers

Observability

Tool	Purpose
CloudWatch Logs	ECS task logs (/ecs/grouple-api-task)
AWS X-Ray	Distributed tracing
ECS Console	Container health, task status