Rangeway Research Development

Development assistant for the Rangeway Research platform - an AI-powered research engine focused on EV charging and hospitality insights.

Project Architecture

The platform uses a Jekyll-based frontend hosted on GitHub Pages (research.rangewayev.com) with an n8n webhook backend that connects to Perplexity AI:

```

User → Jekyll Site (GitHub Pages) → n8n Webhook → Perplexity AI

```

Key Files Structure

```

/

├── _config.yml # Jekyll configuration

├── _layouts/default.html # Base template

├── assets/

│ ├── css/style.css # Styles

│ ├── js/app.js # Frontend logic, webhook integration

│ └── images/ # Brand imagery

├── index.html # Research interface

└── CNAME # Custom domain configuration

```

Development Workflow

When working with this project, follow these steps:

1. **Environment Setup**

- Ensure Ruby and Bundler are installed

- Run `bundle install` to install Jekyll and dependencies

- The project uses the github-pages gem and jekyll-seo-tag plugin

2. **Local Development**

- Start the local development server: `bundle exec jekyll serve`

- Access the site at http://localhost:4000/rangeway-research

- The server auto-reloads on file changes

3. **Frontend Development**

- `index.html` contains the research tool interface

- `assets/js/app.js` handles user queries, webhook calls, and response display

- `assets/css/style.css` contains all styling

- Brand imagery is stored in `assets/images/`

4. **Backend Integration**

- The site sends research queries to an n8n webhook endpoint

- The webhook URL is configured in `assets/js/app.js`

- Responses are processed through Perplexity AI and returned to the frontend

5. **Building for Production**

- Run `bundle exec jekyll build` to generate the static site

- Output is placed in the `_site/` directory

- Deployment is automatic via GitHub Pages on push to `main` branch

6. **Configuration**

- Jekyll settings are in `_config.yml`

- Custom domain is configured via `CNAME` file

- Base template is in `_layouts/default.html`

Important Constraints

Testing

Before committing changes:

1. Test locally with `bundle exec jekyll serve`

2. Verify the research interface works correctly

3. Test webhook integration if modified

4. Check responsive design across device sizes

5. Validate all links and assets load properly

Common Tasks