LaborLens

A web application for searching U.S. Department of Labor Prevailing Wage Determination (PWD) and PERM labor certification cases. Built with React, Express/Node.js, and MongoDB.

Features

• PWD & PERM Search — filter by company, job title, case number, location, and year
• Case Detail View — full field breakdown for individual PWD and PERM records
• Excel Import — stream-process large DOL .xlsx disclosure files into MongoDB with real-time progress
• Admin Auth — JWT-protected import and data management endpoints

Local Development

Docker (recommended)

docker-compose up --build -d

Service	URL
Frontend	http://localhost:3000
Backend API	http://localhost:5001
MongoDB	mongodb://localhost:27017

Without Docker

# Backend
cd backend
cp .env.example .env   # fill in values
npm install
npm run dev

# Frontend (separate terminal)
cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

Environment Variables

See backend/.env.example for all required variables:

Variable	Description
MONGO_URI	MongoDB connection string
JWT_SECRET	Secret for signing JWT tokens
ADMIN_INIT_PASSWORD	Password for the initial admin account (used only when no admin exists)

Deployment

The project uses GitHub Actions + ArgoCD on k3s:

1. Push to main → GitHub Actions builds and pushes images to ghcr.io/blueandhack/laborlens-*
2. CI commits updated image tags to k8s/
3. ArgoCD detects the change and syncs the cluster automatically

To deploy your own instance:

1. Edit k8s/argocd-app.yaml with your repo URL
2. Create the required secret on your cluster:

   kubectl create secret generic laborlens-secrets \
     --from-literal=jwt-secret='...' \
     --from-literal=admin-init-password='...' \
     -n pwd-lookup
   kubectl label secret laborlens-secrets -n pwd-lookup app.kubernetes.io/instance=external

3. Update k8s/ingress.yaml with your domain
4. Apply the ArgoCD app:

   kubectl apply -f k8s/argocd-app.yaml

See docs/secret.example.yaml for the secret format.

Data Source

Import DOL disclosure data from:

• Foreign Labor Certification Data Center — PWD datasets
• DOL PERM Disclosure Data — PERM datasets