CivicFix-AI

Report civic issues, let AI analyze and prioritize them, and help citizens connect with the right government department.

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Inspiration

Civic issues such as potholes, garbage accumulation, damaged roads, and sanitation problems affect everyday life. Reporting these problems and identifying the right department can be confusing for citizens. We built CivicFix-AI to make civic issue reporting more accessible and organized.

What it does

CivicFix-AI is a full-stack civic issue reporting platform where citizens can submit reports with descriptions, locations, and photos. The application helps categorize issues, assess their severity and urgency, identify the relevant department, and track report status through a dashboard.

It also includes a Government Action Hub to help users find relevant complaint portals and an AI Complaint Assistant to prepare complaint drafts.

How we built it

We built the frontend using React and Vite, with a Node.js and Express backend. MongoDB and Mongoose store report data, Cloudinary handles image uploads, and Leaflet with OpenStreetMap provides map functionality. The project also integrates the OpenAI API for AI-assisted features, with rule-based fallback behavior when the API is unavailable.

Challenges we faced

One major challenge was deploying the frontend and backend so they could communicate correctly in production. We debugged API URL configuration, environment variables, database connectivity, and Cloudinary upload errors. Testing the complete workflow helped us ensure that submitted reports appear on the dashboard and that status updates persist.

What we learned

This project strengthened our understanding of full-stack development, REST APIs, database integration, image uploads, environment configuration, deployment debugging, and building a more practical user experience around a real-world problem.

What's next

Future improvements include more reliable AI-assisted analysis, expanded civic department resources, and a smoother experience for citizens tracking and escalating reported issues.

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