title	Aura RS Backend
emoji	🦀
colorFrom	red
colorTo	gray
sdk	docker
app_port	7860
pinned	false

Zenplay Backend

Zenplay Backend is the Rust API service for the Aura-rs application. It provides authentication, playlist-label management, and YouTube library operations for the React frontend.

The service is built with Axum and Tokio, uses PostgreSQL via sqlx, and is designed to run against a Neon database. It stores user accounts, saved YouTube items, favorite status, and playlist labels inferred from item rows.

What This Service Does

• Registers users with first name, email, username, and password
• Authenticates users with email or username + password
• Issues JWT-based sessions through an HTTP-only cookie
• Stores YouTube items with:
  • original YouTube URL
  • normalized YouTube video ID
  • custom title
  • single playlist label
  • favorite flag
• Returns playlist labels by grouping saved items
• Supports playlist label rename by bulk-updating matching rows
• Enforces one saved video per (user, label, video_id) combination

Core API

Authentication

• POST /api/auth/signup
• POST /api/auth/login
• POST /api/auth/logout
• GET /api/auth/me

Library

• GET /api/labels
• GET /api/items?view=all
• GET /api/items?view=favorites
• GET /api/items?label=:label
• POST /api/items
• PATCH /api/items/:item_id
• DELETE /api/items/:item_id
• PATCH /api/labels/:label/rename

Health

• GET /health

Data Model

users

• id
• first_name
• email
• username
• password_hash
• created_at
• updated_at

items

• id
• user_id
• youtube_url
• youtube_video_id
• title
• label
• is_favorite
• created_at
• updated_at

Playlist labels are not stored in a separate table. A playlist exists only when at least one item is assigned to that label.

Security and Validation

• Passwords are hashed with argon2
• Sessions are signed with JWT and stored in an HTTP-only cookie
• CORS is restricted to the configured frontend origin
• Supported YouTube URL formats are validated and normalized before persistence
• Authenticated routes load the current user from the signed cookie

Environment Variables

See .env.example.

Required configuration:

• DATABASE_URL
• JWT_SECRET
• FRONTEND_ORIGIN

Common runtime configuration:

• HOST
• PORT
• RUST_LOG
• APP_ENV
• COOKIE_SECURE

Local Development

1. Copy .env.example to .env
2. Set a valid DATABASE_URL
3. Start the server:

cargo run

On startup the service:

• loads environment variables
• connects to PostgreSQL
• runs SQL migrations from migrations/
• starts the HTTP server

Notes

• This backend is intended to be deployed separately from the frontend

• It is currently designed for private user libraries only

• Playlist grouping is label-based rather than using a separate playlist table

• Command for deploying to Hugging Face Spaces:

git push hf master:main