Fathom — Your AI-powered database assistant.

Fathom

Inspiration

While working on a research project, I had thousands of lines of raw data to analyze manually. I realized there should be a simpler way to query and visualize data—like Cursor, but built for databases.

What it does

Fathom is an AI-powered desktop app that runs locally. Users can upload a database, view their tables, generate charts, and ask natural language questions. The AI agent analyzes the database and delivers answers instantly—no SQL required.

How we built it

We built Fathom with a React frontend and a Python backend. The backend integrates with the OpenAI API for natural language understanding, while the frontend provides an interactive desktop interface. Everything is packaged for cross-platform use.

Challenges we ran into

Mapping natural language queries to complex database structures.
Ensuring performance while handling large datasets.
Building a smooth local-first experience with no data leaving the user’s machine.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

A functional cross-platform desktop app that feels seamless to use.
Successfully combining charts, AI-powered Q&A, and secure local execution.
Creating a tool that can save researchers, students, and developers hours of manual work.

What we learned

We learned how challenging it can be to bridge the gap between human language and structured database queries. We also gained experience with building cross-platform desktop apps and ensuring privacy by keeping everything local.