Feynman Agent

A Mistral-powered desktop tutor (PySide6) using the Feynman Technique, students explain lessons in their own words, and the AI dynamically probes gaps in understanding with follow-up questions.

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About This Project

Inspiration

One day I was watching a YouTube video about a great physicist and Nobel laureate named Richard Feynman. The video explained the Feynman Technique, and I jotted down its 4 steps. Right around that time I saw this hackathon, and I knew instantly — this would be a great project for a great hackathon.

What it does

An AI that asks you questions about topics you've stored in the app's database — school lessons, ideas, whatever you're learning. The AI automatically creates and updates these topics as you go, and asks you deep, probing questions about them to make sure you actually understand the material, not just memorized it.

How I built it

I used PySide6 (an amazing desktop GUI library, built on top of C++) for the interface, Mistral AI for the reasoning, and Tavily so the AI can search the web when it needs to. I picked Mistral and Tavily specifically because they both offer generous free-tier credits — so literally anyone can grab an API key and start learning for free, no paywall.

The project is split into two halves:

  • GUI — all the PySide6 code and interface logic
  • AI — all the AI responses and reasoning

The GUI has two main parts: the Reasoning Stream, which is where the user and AI actually talk to each other, and the Knowledge Base, which holds all the user's topics and generates deep analysis on them.

Challenges I ran into

Getting the AI responses to sync properly with the GUI in real time was tough — making sure the interface updated smoothly without lagging or freezing.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Building this whole thing solo, in just 14 days.

What I learned

How to make the AI update, add, and change things in the GUI live — without freezing the app or draining the device's resources.

What's next for Feynman Agent

  • A shortcut to launch the app instantly
  • Expanding the Knowledge Base GUI with more features — like deep explanations per topic, letting users create their own flashcards, and improving the PDF deep-analysis template

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