Return JSON 404 for unknown API routes

[ChrisAdamsdevelopment]

Motivation

• Ensure API clients never receive HTML 404s for unknown /api/* paths by adding an explicit JSON 404 handler because GET /api/nonexistent previously fell through to the SPA/static handlers and returned HTML.

Description

• Added a targeted catch-all app.use('/api', ...) in server.js (inserted after existing API endpoints, including app.get('/api/health'), and before the static SPA fallback) that returns 404 with JSON {"error":"API route not found","path":req.originalUrl} and only touches server.js, leaving auth, Stripe, usage, SEO generation, cleanse logic, Docker, metadata utilities, and frontend UI unchanged.

Testing

• Ran npm install and npm run build, started the server with NODE_ENV=development JWT_SECRET=dev_jwt_secret_change_me ENABLE_MOCK_CHECKOUT=true DB_PATH=./spectra.db FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:5173 PORT=3001 npm start, and verified with curl that GET /api/health returned 200 JSON, GET /api/me without a token returned 401 JSON, GET /api/nonexistent returned 404 JSON with {"error":"API route not found","path":"/api/nonexistent"}, and GET /nonexistent-frontend-route still served index.html (SPA fallback) — all checks passed.

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Codex Task

Summary by Sourcery

Bug Fixes:

• Return a JSON 404 payload for unmatched /api routes to prevent HTML responses for API clients.

[sourcery-ai]

Reviewer's guide (collapsed on small PRs)

Reviewer's Guide

Adds a JSON 404 catch-all handler for unknown /api routes so API clients never receive HTML responses for missing endpoints, while leaving SPA/static routing behavior unchanged.

Sequence diagram for JSON 404 handling of unknown API routes

sequenceDiagram
    actor ApiClient
    participant ExpressApp
    participant ApiRoutes
    participant Api404Middleware
    participant SpaFallback

    ApiClient->>ExpressApp: HTTP GET /api/nonexistent
    ExpressApp->>ApiRoutes: Match registered /api routes
    ApiRoutes-->>ExpressApp: No matching route
    ExpressApp->>Api404Middleware: Invoke app.use('/api', ...)
    Api404Middleware-->>ApiClient: 404 JSON { error: API route not found, path: /api/nonexistent }

    %% Non API path still goes to SPA
    ApiClient->>ExpressApp: HTTP GET /nonexistent-frontend-route
    ExpressApp->>SpaFallback: Static SPA fallback
    SpaFallback-->>ApiClient: 200 HTML index.html

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Flow diagram for routing between API JSON 404 and SPA fallback

flowchart TD
    A[Incoming HTTP request] --> B{Path starts with /api?}
    B -->|Yes| C{Matches existing /api route?}
    C -->|Yes| D[Handle with specific API route
status: 2xx/4xx/5xx JSON]
    C -->|No| E[API 404 middleware
status: 404 JSON
error: API route not found]
    B -->|No| F{Static file or SPA route?}
    F -->|Static asset| G[Serve static file]
    F -->|SPA route| H[Serve index.html
SPA fallback]
    F -->|No match| H

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File-Level Changes

Change	Details	Files
Introduce a JSON 404 catch-all middleware for unknown /api routes after existing API endpoints and before SPA/static fallback.	Add app.use('/api', ...) middleware that matches any unmatched /api route. Return HTTP 404 with JSON body containing an error message and the original request URL. Place the middleware after existing API routes such as /api/health and before the distPath/static SPA fallback initialization to avoid altering current valid API or frontend routes.	server.js

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