AAYAM 2026

Step Beyond the Known - Official website for AAYAM 2026, the techfest by Newton School of Technology, Bengaluru.

April 24–25, 2026 • NST S-VYASA University, Bengaluru • ₹2L+ Prize Pool

Features

• Public site - Home, Competitions, About, Gallery, Sponsors
• Ambassador program - Register, earn points, complete tasks, convert points to signups
• Admin dashboard - Approve ambassadors, manage signups, create tasks, bulk upload
• COMICO theme - Retro comic-style design with Ben-Day dots and speed lines

Tech Stack

• Framework: Next.js 16 (App Router)
• Database: Firebase Firestore
• Auth: JWT (admin + ambassador)
• Email: Nodemailer (SMTP)
• Styling: Tailwind CSS 4

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm or pnpm

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-org/aayam.git
cd aayam

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Copy environment template
cp .env.example .env.local

# Edit .env.local with your values (see Environment Variables below)

Environment Variables

Create .env.local with:

Variable	Description
NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL	Site base URL (optional)
JWT_SECRET	JWT signing key (min 32 chars in production)
FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID	Firebase project ID
FIREBASE_CLIENT_EMAIL	Firebase service account email
FIREBASE_PRIVATE_KEY	Firebase private key (use \n for newlines)
SMTP_HOST, SMTP_PORT, SMTP_USER, SMTP_PASS	Email (ambassador approvals)
ADMIN_SEED_SECRET, ADMIN_EMAIL, ADMIN_PASSWORD	For one-time admin seed

See .env.example for the full template.

Run Development Server

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

Build for Production

npm run build
npm start

Deployment (Vercel)

Set these environment variables in Vercel → Project → Settings → Environment Variables:

Variable	Required	Notes
JWT_SECRET	Yes	Min 32 chars. Generate: openssl rand -base64 32
FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID	Yes	From Firebase Console
FIREBASE_CLIENT_EMAIL	Yes	Service account email
FIREBASE_PRIVATE_KEY	Yes	Full key with \n for newlines
SMTP_*	Yes	For ambassador emails
ADMIN_SEED_SECRET, ADMIN_EMAIL, ADMIN_PASSWORD	Yes	For admin seed
NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL	Optional	e.g. https://www.aayamfest.com

Important: JWT_SECRET must be set in production or ambassador/admin login will fail with 500.

Project Structure

├── app/                    # Next.js App Router
│   ├── (pages)/            # Public pages
│   ├── admin/              # Admin login & dashboard
│   ├── ambassador/         # Ambassador register, login, dashboard
│   └── api/                # API routes
├── components/             # React components
├── lib/                    # Utilities, Firebase, auth, email
├── public/                 # Static assets
└── scripts/                # One-time scripts (seed, migration)

Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start dev server
npm run build	Production build
npm start	Start production server
npm run lint	Run ESLint

Firestore Collections

• ambassadors - Ambassador registrations
• admin_users - Admin accounts
• signups - Participant signups (linked to ambassadors)
• tasks - Ambassador tasks
• task_submissions - Task submissions
• ambassador_points - Points ledger

Deploy indexes: firebase deploy --only firestore:indexes

License

Private - Newton School of Technology