SkillMate Smoke Tests (Manual)

Environment
- Ensure backend starts: `npm run dev` in `backend`
- Ensure frontend starts: `npm run dev` in `frontend`
- Optional admin panel: `npm run dev` in `admin-panel`

Checklist
1) Auth/Login
   - POST /api/auth/login with valid admin (admin/admin123)
   - Expect 200, token present, user role admin

2) Employees (public list)
   - GET /api/employees/public (with token)
   - Expect 200, array payload

3) Employees (CRUD minimal)
   - POST /api/employees with minimal valid payload
   - Expect 201, id present
   - GET /api/employees/:id returns same data
   - PUT /api/employees/:id updates simple field, expect 200
   - DELETE /api/employees/:id expect 200

4) Skills
   - GET /api/skills expect 200, array

5) Settings
   - GET /api/admin/settings expect 200 (with admin)

Notes
- In production, JWT_SECRET must be set or backend refuses to start.