CockpitPath

CockpitPath is a connected aircraft-learning platform for flight simulation users. It combines visual procedures, cockpit exploration, aircraft-system learning, and persistent progress in a simulator-companion web experience.

Status

Learning Progress and Guide Mode are complete. Staging deployment and real-device validation are the current checkpoint.

Initial supported target

• Boeing 737 MAX 8
• iFly
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

Core learning areas

• Guide Mode
• Aircraft Page
• Cockpit Explorer
• Aircraft Systems

Architecture baseline

• Next.js and React
• Plain JavaScript
• Neon Postgres, Neon Auth, and PostgreSQL RLS
• Cloudflare R2 for learning media
• Railway deployment

Documentation

Start with the documentation index.

All repository documentation, code-related artifacts, schemas, and project files are written in English.

Local development

CockpitPath uses npm and a Node.js version compatible with the engines field in package.json.

Copy .env.example to .env.local, then provide the development Neon Auth configuration named in that file. Keep .env.local private and untracked.

npm install
npm run dev

The local application is available at http://localhost:3000 by default.

Use npm test, npm run lint, and npm run build to run the current quality checks.

Database migrations and integration tests use the unpooled connection configured in .env.local. Both commands are intended for the linked Neon development branch; the database guard also recognizes the dedicated staging branch while continuing to reject production and unknown branches.

npm run db:migrate
npm run db:test

Guide Mode reads published content through a restricted development runtime role. Provision its ignored CONTENT_DATABASE_URL once per development branch, then use the Guide integration command for the synthetic Auth/Data API/RLS acceptance path.

npm run db:provision:content-reader
npm run guide:test:integration

Repository-authored YAML content is validated before publication. Publication commands are guarded to the linked development/test environment; the dry run is the normal review entry point.

npm run content:validate
npm run content:publish:dry-run
npm run content:publish
npm run content:test:integration

See the content authoring guide and publishing workflow for the full policy.

Staging deploys the same application to Railway against the isolated Neon staging branch. The initial staging schema is applied and verified through a trusted operator boundary before deployment; the Railway web runtime never receives the database-owner credential. Railway checks /api/health before activating a deployment. See the deployment architecture for the required variable names and verification workflow.