Fix: Force IPv4 in Vite proxy to resolve Windows ::1 ECONNREFUSED error

[Thevishal-kumar]

Description
I encountered a network connection error on Windows where the frontend could not communicate with the backend, resulting in the error: Error: connect ECONNREFUSED ::1:8000.

This happens because localhost often resolves to IPv6 (::1) on Windows, but the Python backend listens on IPv4 (127.0.0.1). This PR fixes the vite.config.ts proxy settings to explicitly use the IPv4 address, ensuring consistent connectivity.

Changes Made
Config: Updated Frontend/vite.config.ts proxy target from http://localhost:8000 to http://127.0.0.1:8000.

📷 Screenshots or Visual Changes (if applicable)
Terminal: The error http proxy error: /api/trending-niches no longer appears in the logs.
before fix:

After Fix:

App: The frontend can now successfully fetch data from the backend API.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Chores
  • Updated development server configuration for API request routing.

_{✏️ Tip: You can customize this high-level summary in your review settings.}

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The Vite development server proxy configuration was updated to redirect API requests from localhost:8000 to 127.0.0.1:8000. This is a hostname string substitution in the dev server configuration with no changes to control flow or error handling.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Vite Configuration Frontend/vite.config.ts	Updated dev server proxy target hostname from localhost to 127.0.0.1 for /api path routing

Estimated code review effort

🎯 1 (Trivial) | ⏱️ ~3 minutes

Poem

A hop to the numbered address so fine,
127.0.0.1, the loopback line,
No localhost needed, we've changed our way,
The API awaits, hip-hip-hooray! 🐰

Pre-merge checks and finishing touches

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main change: updating the Vite proxy target from localhost to 127.0.0.1 to force IPv4 and resolve the Windows ECONNREFUSED error.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

✨ Finishing touches

• 📝 Generate docstrings

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 0

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)

Frontend/vite.config.ts (1)

16-16: Fix correctly addresses the Windows IPv6 dev environment issue.

The change from localhost:8000 to 127.0.0.1:8000 in the Vite dev server proxy directly solves the Windows ECONNREFUSED error by forcing IPv4 resolution. The proxy configuration is development-only and applies universally across platforms.

Optional: Consider adding a comment explaining why 127.0.0.1 is used instead of localhost to clarify this is a Windows IPv6 workaround:

  server: {
    proxy: {
+     // Use 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost to force IPv4 and avoid Windows ::1 resolution issues
      '/api': 'http://127.0.0.1:8000',
    },
  },

📜 Review details

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between a3be437 and bb28ba6.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• Frontend/vite.config.ts