Files
school_compare/README.md
TudorandClaude Opus 5 eaf5e5d180 docs: describe the system that exists, not the one we started with
The README still opened on "Primary School Compass", a KS2 tool for Wandsworth
and Merton served by FastAPI and vanilla JavaScript with Chart.js. Every layer
of that sentence is now wrong: coverage is England-wide across KS2, KS4,
all-through and post-16, Next.js owns the public UI, and school data comes from
dbt-built `marts.*` rather than CSVs loaded at startup. The setup instructions
walked a reader into a virtualenv and a CSV import that cannot build the current
schema, so following the docs produced an empty database and a wrong mental
model at the same time.

Replace the narrative docs with two reference documents that were checked
against the code: docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for request flow, data ownership, the
backend/frontend module boundaries and the real publication sequence, and
docs/DEVELOPMENT.md for the checks that actually run, including the container
and CI version skew that makes "just run pytest" misleading.

The env examples drifted the same way. ALLOWED_ORIGINS is a JSON array, not a
comma-separated list; the frontend needs FASTAPI_URL, DATABASE_URL and
PAYLOAD_SECRET, none of which were documented; and RATE_LIMIT_BURST,
DEFAULT_PAGE_SIZE and MAX_PAGE_SIZE were presented as tuning controls the routes
do not consult. Each is now stated as it behaves.

MIGRATION_SUMMARY.md keeps its content but gains a banner, because it reads like
setup instructions and is not.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016y2J6bs8gbuSJbH18w7Tan
2026-09-14 23:01:15 +01:00

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2.9 KiB
Markdown

# SchoolCompare
SchoolCompare compares schools across England: primary (KS2), secondary (KS4),
all-through and post-16 provision, with coverage depending on the source dataset.
It provides school search, postcode maps, comparisons, rankings, place pages,
Ofsted information, admissions and destination measures. Editorial content lives
in a Payload CMS blog.
## Start here
- [Architecture and data flow](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md)
- [Development and validation](docs/DEVELOPMENT.md)
- [Deployment and promotion](docs/DEPLOY.md)
- [Legacy and unused-code inventory](docs/LEGACY_CODE.md)
- [Frontend conventions](nextjs-app/README.md)
- [CMS publishing](nextjs-app/docs/PUBLISHING.md)
## Repository map
| Path | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| `backend/` | FastAPI routes, cached school data, read-only SQLAlchemy mappings, feature flags |
| `nextjs-app/` | Next.js App Router, React UI, Payload CMS, frontend tests |
| `pipeline/plugins/extractors/` | Custom Singer taps for GIAS, EES, Ofsted and other datasets |
| `pipeline/transform/` | dbt staging/intermediate models, marts, seeds and data tests |
| `pipeline/dags/` | Airflow extraction, transformation and publication workflows |
| `pipeline/scripts/` | Search indexing, code generation and operational diagnostics |
| `e2e/` | Playwright journeys against a running environment |
| `.gitea/workflows/` | PR checks, staging deployment and manual production promotion |
| `scripts/` | CI review tooling and historical data utilities; see the legacy inventory |
| `docs/superpowers/`, `mockups/` | Design history and prototypes, not application entry points |
## Runtime
The public site is **Next.js**, not the FastAPI root page. Browser `/api/*`
requests pass through a Next.js route handler to FastAPI. Server-rendered pages
call FastAPI directly using `FASTAPI_URL`, including its `/api` suffix.
PostgreSQL/PostGIS stores school data. Meltano/Singer extracts source data;
dbt builds `marts.*`; FastAPI reads those tables. Typesense serves text search
and autocomplete. Payload runs inside Next.js and owns a separate `payload`
database schema and uploaded media.
There is **no automatic CSV import or sample dataset on startup**. A working
school-data environment needs populated marts from the pipeline or an approved
database snapshot. See [development](docs/DEVELOPMENT.md) before choosing a setup.
## Validation
```sh
cd nextjs-app
npm ci
npm run typecheck
npm test -- --runInBand
```
Backend checks, pipeline validation, runtime versions and E2E requirements are
listed in [DEVELOPMENT.md](docs/DEVELOPMENT.md). No `npm run lint` script is
currently defined.
## Deployment
Work on a feature branch and open a PR. Merging to `main` builds images and
deploys staging. Production promotion is a separate, human-triggered Gitea
workflow. Use [DEPLOY.md](docs/DEPLOY.md) and the Portainer compose files as the
operational references. The generic compose examples still reference `:latest`,
which the current release workflow does not publish.