This README provides step-by-step instructions for deploying the ReliefOps Disaster Response Dashboard, including infrastructure deployment on AWS using Terraform, and running the React frontend locally or via AWS S3 + CloudFront.

Before starting, ensure the following tools and permissions are available:

• IAM Access: You must have access to the target AWS account. Configure this either via:

  • AWS CLI with access and secret keys, or
  • AWS SSO (Single Sign-On)

• Permissions: Ensure your IAM user or role has the following AWS permissions:

  • Lambda
  • S3
  • DynamoDB
  • CloudFront
  • API Gateway (HTTP APIs - V2)
  • AWS Bedrock

• Terraform: Install the Terraform CLI.
• Node.js & npm: Required to run and build the frontend. You can download both from nodejs.org.
• AWS CLI: Required for deploying frontend assets to S3. Install it from AWS CLI docs.

Before deploying the infrastructure, edit the terraform/variables.tf file and set a unique name for the S3 bucket used by the frontend app.

variable "static_web_app_bucket_name" {
  default = "your-unique-app-bucket-name"
}

⚠️ The S3 bucket name must be globally unique across AWS.

1. Navigate to the terraform directory:

   cd terraform

2. Initialize the Terraform project:

   terraform init

3. Set the AWS CLI profile to use:

   export AWS_PROFILE=your_profile_name

4. Apply the Terraform configuration:

   terraform apply -auto-approve

5. After deployment, note down the API Gateway URL and CloudFront domain — you'll need these for the frontend.

1. Navigate to the web directory at the project root:

   cd ../web

2. Create a file named .env.local and add the following environment variable, replacing the placeholder with your API Gateway URL:

   VITE_API_BASE=https://your-api-gateway-url.com

3. Install frontend dependencies:

   npm install

4. Start the development server:

   npm run dev

5. Open the provided localhost link in your browser to view the web app.

To serve the frontend from AWS instead of locally:

1. Build the frontend app:

   npm run build

2. Sync the contents of the dist/ folder to your deployed S3 bucket (replace <your-bucket-name> with the one you set earlier):

   aws s3 sync dist/ s3://<your-bucket-name> --delete

3. Once synced, access the app via the CloudFront domain output by Terraform.

✅ Note: The CloudFront distribution is already configured to serve content from your S3 bucket with appropriate caching and routing rules.

• Keep .env.local out of version control to protect sensitive data.
• If using AWS SSO, make sure your session is active when running AWS CLI or Terraform commands.