An-Nahwi (النحوي)

An-Nahwi (النحوي - "The Grammarian") is a learning project I started because I couldn't find a good Arabic learning app that combined text management, roots in-depth study, vocabulary learning and some analytics and flashcards learning tools.

What it does: Manage Arabic texts, explore word roots, build vocabulary, and track learning progress. Nothing revolutionary, just tools that I needed and thought others might find useful too.

Stack: Kotlin/Quarkus backend, Nuxt 4/TypeScript frontend, PostgreSQL database

Reality check: This is a personal project, not a polished product. The database starts mostly empty - you'll need to add your own texts and vocabulary as you learn. There are scripts included to backup, restore, and populate the database with some sample data, syncing them to a S3 bucket. Some features are incomplete, bugs are not excluded. But the core functionality works, and if you're learning Arabic and like to tinker with code, you might find it helpful.

What you need to run it

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose (easiest way to get started)
• Java 21+ (if you want to hack on the backend)
• Node.js 22+ and pnpm (for frontend development)
• PostgreSQL 17+ (if you prefer running locally)

Build Tools

• Backend uses Gradle wrapper for Quarkus/Kotlin builds
• Frontend uses pnpm for Node.js dependencies and Nuxt development

What's in here

The app has these main parts:

• Text management: Add Arabic texts, mark difficult words, take notes
• Root exploration: Browse Arabic roots and see related vocabulary
• Vocabulary building: Track words you're learning with translations and examples
• Flashcard system: Basic spaced repetition for vocabulary practice
• Simple analytics: See what you've been working on

📸 More screenshots

Quick Start

Full Stack (Docker)

just dev          # Start all services
# or
docker-compose up

Development Mode

Database only:

just start-db     # Start PostgreSQL container

Backend (local):

just local-be     # Start in dev mode with hot reload
# or
cd backend && ./gradlew quarkusDev

Frontend (local):

cd frontend && pnpm install && pnpm run dev

Available Commands

This project uses just as task runner (similar to Makefile, just better! ;) ).

• just dev - Start full stack
• just build - Build all containers
• just test - Run all tests
• just clean - Clean containers and volumes
• just start-db - Database only
• just local-be - Backend dev mode
• Backend build: cd backend && ./gradlew build
• Frontend dev: cd frontend && pnpm run dev

Monitoring

There is a second docker-compose file in this project which additionally adds monitoring tools like Prometheus and Grafana. To run it, use:

docker-compose -f docker-compose-monitoring.yml up

# or

just monitoring

Access Points

• Frontend: http://localhost:3000
• Backend API: http://localhost:8080
• API Docs: http://localhost:8080/swagger-ui

More info

• Screenshots and features
• API documentation available at http://localhost:8080/swagger-ui when running

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.