Real-Time Chat API Backend

I need a seasoned backend developer to architect and code the APIs that will drive a real-time support chat and text-messaging module inside my application. The stack on my side is React for the client and a fresh MySQL instance ready for you to model, so your solution should cleanly expose REST endpoints (and WebSocket channels where appropriate) that speak directly to that database.

Core functionality revolves around secure, low-latency user-to-user chat. Messages must persist reliably, update live, and remain encrypted in transit. For authentication I’m sticking with straightforward email-and-password login; however, keeping the design flexible enough to bolt on OAuth or token-based flows later would be a plus.

You’ll be responsible for:
• Designing the schema in MySQL, including indexing and migrations.
• Building the messaging APIs, real-time sockets, and any necessary background workers or queues.
• Implementing the email/password auth flow, session management, and basic rate-limiting.
• Writing concise setup and usage documentation so my frontend team can plug straight in.

I expect clean, well-commented code (Node.js, Python, Go, or a comparable server language is fine), adherence to common security best practices, and a brief hand-off call or screen share to walk through the endpoints once everything is deployed to our staging server. If you have questions about edge cases—attachments, read receipts, or future group chat expansion—let’s talk early so the architecture stays future-proof.