Index: src/lib/api.ts
===================================================================
--- src/lib/api.ts	(revision 8496f3c2ae490dee80fdf71af9fe30c63996efaf)
+++ src/lib/api.ts	(revision 8496f3c2ae490dee80fdf71af9fe30c63996efaf)
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+/**
+ * Base URL of the iknow-api backend.
+ *
+ * Set NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL in .env.local to point at a local API run
+ * (see .env.example). The faculty database is only reachable through the SSH
+ * tunnel on the developer machine, so the deployed backend cannot read it -
+ * working against real data means running iknow-api locally.
+ */
+export const API_BASE_URL =
+  process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL ?? 'https://iknow-api.onrender.com';
+
+/** Builds an absolute API URL from a path such as `/api/user/getUser`. */
+export function apiUrl(path: string): string {
+  return `${API_BASE_URL}${path}`;
+}