MarsFounder.io

The robotic-first Mars pre-deployment platform.

Deploy robotic fleets to Mars, configure missions, and build the infrastructure for a Turnkey Civilization — before humans ever set foot on the surface.

🌐 Live: marsfounder-io.vercel.app
📖 Docs: documentation/
🤝 Contributions welcome: CONTRIBUTING.md
🛡 Security: SECURITY.md
📜 Code of conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

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What is this?

MarsFounder.io is a mission control and ecosystem management platform built around a Robots-First Doctrine: autonomous robotic pre-deployment is the fastest path to a sustainable Mars civilization. This platform lets founders plan, configure, and track robotic missions — treating Martian surface operations as a product, not a science project.

The core philosophy, drawn from the "Robotic Mars Pre-Deployment Program Projection", is that biological vulnerability is the primary bottleneck in planetary colonization. The 50-year strategic window before human arrival should be used to build a complete planetary network of power, compute, and life-support infrastructure: a "Turnkey Civilization" that awaits human arrival as a finished utility.

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Why Contribute?

• Interesting product surface — frontend UX, API design, AI-assisted workflows, data modeling, and mission simulation all meet in one repo
• Real contributor leverage — the codebase is still early enough that a single good PR can meaningfully shape the product
• Clear technical seams — frontend, API, schema, generated clients, docs, and deployment are split into understandable workspace packages
• Plenty of open problems — testing, API completeness, mission logic, telemetry realism, UI polish, and contributor tooling all have room to improve

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Features

• Mission Builder — configure objectives, location, duration, and bot loadout before committing an asset to the surface
• Robotic Fleet Management — browse bot classes by role, spec, and hourly credit burn; build custom loadouts with tools and add-ons
• Autonomous Deployment Framework — long-form strategy document rendered directly from the repo markdown source at /adf
• AI Personas — each bot class has a named AI persona; chat with your fleet commander before a mission
• Mission Feasibility Analysis — AI-powered analysis flags risks before you deploy
• Skill Marketplace — modular software payloads for robotic hardware
• Ambient Telemetry — live Mars Sol Date, Earth–Mars light delay, and dust storm alerts
• Dashboard — mission counts, build overview, and live telemetry summary

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Product Preview

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 18, Vite 7, Tailwind CSS v4, Shadcn UI, Framer Motion, GSAP, Three.js
Backend	Express 5, TypeScript, esbuild
Database	Drizzle ORM + Neon (serverless PostgreSQL)
AI	OpenRouter (deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash)
Hosting	Vercel (frontend) + Hostinger VPS / Docker (API)
Monorepo	pnpm workspaces

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Project Structure

├── artifacts/
│   ├── marsfounder/      # React SPA (frontend)
│   └── api-server/       # Express API server
├── lib/
│   ├── db/               # Drizzle ORM schema + client
│   ├── api-spec/         # OpenAPI spec + Orval codegen
│   ├── api-client-react/ # Generated TanStack Query hooks
│   └── api-zod/          # Generated Zod validators
├── documentation/        # Architecture, API reference, deployment, local dev
├── vercel.json           # Vercel build config (frontend)
└── Dockerfile            # Multi-stage Docker build (API)

Full documentation: documentation/architecture.md

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js v22+
• pnpm (npm install -g pnpm)

Installation

1. Clone the repository
2. Install dependencies:

   pnpm install

3. Create a .env file at the repo root with:

   DATABASE_URL=<your Neon connection string>
   OPENROUTER_API_KEY=<your OpenRouter key>
   

4. Push the database schema:

   export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs) && pnpm --filter @workspace/db run push

Running locally

API server (terminal 1):

export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs) && PORT=3000 pnpm --filter @workspace/api-server run dev

Frontend (terminal 2):

cd artifacts/marsfounder && PORT=5173 BASE_PATH=/ pnpm run dev

Frontend runs at http://localhost:5173. The Vite proxy forwards /api/* calls to localhost:3000.

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Deployment

Architecture

Browser → Vercel (static frontend) → Hostinger VPS (Express API, Docker) → Neon (PostgreSQL)

Frontend — Vercel

• Build command (auto-detected from vercel.json): pnpm --filter @workspace/marsfounder run build
• Output: artifacts/marsfounder/dist/public
• Production requests use relative /api/* URLs.
• vercel.json proxies /api/:path* to the VPS API, so VITE_API_URL should remain unset in production unless you intentionally serve the API over HTTPS directly.

API Server — Hostinger VPS (Docker)

The repo includes a Dockerfile at the root. To deploy or redeploy on the VPS:

# First time
git clone https://github.com/nikkogibler/MarsFounderIO.git /opt/marsfounder
cd /opt/marsfounder

cat > /root/marsfounder.env <<'EOF'
PORT=3000
NODE_ENV=production
DATABASE_URL=<your Neon connection string>
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=<your OpenRouter key>
CORS_ORIGIN=https://marsfounder-io.vercel.app
EOF

docker build -t marsfounder-api .
docker run -d \
  --name marsfounder-api \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 3000:3000 \
   --env-file /root/marsfounder.env \
  marsfounder-api

# To redeploy after a git push
cd /opt/marsfounder
git pull
docker build -t marsfounder-api .
docker stop marsfounder-api && docker rm marsfounder-api
docker run -d --name marsfounder-api --restart unless-stopped \
   -p 3000:3000 \
   --env-file /root/marsfounder.env \
   marsfounder-api

Verify the API is healthy:

curl http://localhost:3000/api/healthz
# → {"status":"ok"}

CORS

The API reads CORS_ORIGIN (comma-separated list of allowed origins). Set this to your Vercel domain(s). If unset, all origins are allowed (dev-only default).

Full deployment guide: documentation/deployment.md

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Contributing

This project is open to collaborators. Whether you're interested in the product vision, the tech stack, or just want to build something meaningful — you're welcome here.

Start with CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, workflow expectations, and PR guidelines. Bugs and ideas should go through the GitHub issue templates so reports stay actionable.

Good first contributions

• UI/UX improvements to any page in artifacts/marsfounder/src/pages/
• New bot class definitions (schema in lib/db/src/schema/bots.ts, seed in artifacts/api-server/src/lib/seed.ts)
• New ambient data endpoints (light delay accuracy, weather models)
• Mission feasibility prompt tuning (artifacts/api-server/src/lib/feasibility.ts)
• OpenAPI spec completeness (lib/api-spec/openapi.yaml)
• Tests — there are none yet; any coverage is welcome

How to contribute

1. Fork the repo and create a branch (git checkout -b feat/your-idea)
2. Follow the local dev setup in documentation/local-development.md
3. For larger changes, open an issue first so the direction is aligned before you spend time building
4. Make your changes and open a PR against main
5. Describe what you built and why in the PR description

Reach out

If you want to discuss the vision, a larger feature, or a collaboration before writing code — open an issue with context and proposed scope.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE