Before pushing this repository to a public Git host, ensure the following:

• Remove or rotate any real secrets stored in repository files (for example, backend/.env currently contains SECRET_KEY and DB_PASSWORD).
• Add secrets to your Git host's secret store (GitHub Secrets) and reference them in CI/workflows.
• Commit an example env file instead: backend/.env.example is provided for reference.
• Ensure .gitignore ignores .env files (already included).

If you believe sensitive data was committed in the past, rotate the keys and consider rewriting history with git filter-repo or git filter-branch.