Flat, mate?

London-first flatmate matching + room listings for students.

This repo includes:

• apps/api: Node API using verisimdb as the persistence/search layer.
• apps/web: React + Vite web client.
• apps/mobile: Expo React Native mobile client.
• packages/shared: Domain models, compatibility scoring, and verisimdb encoding helpers.

Why this MVP

Student renters in London need two things at once:

• matching: who to live with.
• listing: where to live.

flat-mate handles both in one flow, with profile compatibility and listing discovery centered around London boroughs and universities.

Architecture

flat-mate writes profiles, listings, and swipe events as hexads in verisimdb:

• POST /hexads for writes.
• GET /search/text to retrieve encoded entities.
• POST /search/vector for compatibility feed ranking.

Because current verisimdb API responses are compact, the app stores encoded payloads in searchable document titles as an MVP strategy.

See docs/architecture.md.

Quick start

1. Start verisimdb in another terminal:

cd /var$REPOS_DIR/verisimdb
cargo run -p verisim-api

2. Install web/mobile dependencies:

cd /var$REPOS_DIR/flat-mate
npm install

3. Configure the Deno API (deno 1.40+ needed):

cp .env.example .env
source .env

4. Start the API:

deno run --watch=apps/api --allow-net --allow-env apps/api/main.ts

5. Start web + mobile:

npm run dev:web
npm run dev:mobile

Environment

.env:

HOST=127.0.0.1
PORT=4000
VERISIMDB_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8080
VERISIMDB_VECTOR_DIM=384

Web can optionally use:

VITE_API_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:4000

Expo can optionally use:

EXPO_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:4000

Profiles require a .ac.uk studentEmail today so the API can enforce student verification for the first pilot.

Product scope in first instance

• Student profile creation with compatibility preferences.
• Swipe-style profile matching.
• Listing creation and browsing.
• Match discovery from mutual likes.

Next product increments

• University email verification (.ac.uk).
• Safety workflows (reporting, blocklist, check-in sharing).
• Built-in chat and viewing scheduler.

Architecture

See TOPOLOGY.md for a visual architecture map and completion dashboard.