VU — AI-Powered Virtual Interview Platform

VU conducts real-time AI-driven interviews with voice, video, and transcript analysis. It evaluates candidates using BARS-anchored scoring, detects cheating through 5 signals, and delivers a complete performance report — all without human intervention.

Services

Service	Tech	Port	Repo
Frontend	React 19, Vite 7, nginx	5173	vu-frontend
Backend	NestJS 11, TypeORM, PostgreSQL	3000	vu-backend
AI Service	FastAPI, Gemini/Groq, AssemblyAI, edge-tts	8000	vu-ai
Database	PostgreSQL 16	5432	—

Prerequisites

• Docker 24+ with Docker Compose v2
• An LLM API key: Gemini (recommended — 1M TPM free) or Groq (fast — 12K TPM free)
• An AssemblyAI API key (for speech-to-text)

Quick Start

# 1. Clone with all submodules
git clone --recursive https://github.com/vu-app-dev/vu-app.git
cd vu-app

# 2. Copy and edit environment
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env — fill in GEMINI_API_KEY (or GROQ_API_KEY) + ASSEMBLYAI_API_KEY

# 3. Start the stack
docker compose up --build

# 4. Access the app
# Frontend:  http://localhost:5173
# Backend:   http://localhost:3000  (Swagger: /docs)
# AI Service: http://localhost:8000  (health: /health)

Environment Variables

All variables are in .env at the project root. Copy .env.example to start.

Database

Variable	Default	Description
POSTGRES_USER	vu	PostgreSQL username
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	vu	PostgreSQL password
POSTGRES_DB	vu	PostgreSQL database name

Backend

Variable	Default	Description
JWT_SECRET	vu-dev-jwt-secret-change-me	JWT signing secret
AI_SERVICE_API_KEY	vu-ai-shared-secret	Shared secret for AI → backend auth

AI Service

Variable	Default	Description
LLM_PROVIDER	gemini	gemini or groq
GEMINI_API_KEY	—	Google Gemini API key (if gemini)
GROQ_API_KEY	—	Groq API key (if groq)
ASSEMBLYAI_API_KEY	—	AssemblyAI API key (speech-to-text)
BACKEND_API_KEY	vu-ai-shared-secret	Must match AI_SERVICE_API_KEY

Where to Get API Keys

Service	Sign Up	Free Tier
Google Gemini	aistudio.google.com/apikey	1500 RPD, 1M TPM
Groq	console.groq.com/keys	30 RPM, 12K TPM
AssemblyAI	assemblyai.com/app	5 hours/month free

Submodules

This repo uses git submodules for the 3 services.

# Clone with submodules
git clone --recursive https://github.com/vu-app-dev/vu-app.git

# If already cloned without --recursive
git submodule update --init --recursive

# Pull latest changes from all submodules
git submodule update --remote

Testing

Service	Command
AI Service	cd services/vu-ai && .venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/ -v (347 tests)
Backend	cd services/vu-backend && npm test
Frontend	No test runner configured

Documentation

• Architecture — system design, interview request flow, data model
• AI Scoring — BARS scoring, cheat detection, LLM provider config

License

MIT