Why Kadoku
Gift shopping usually begins with a catalog. Kadoku starts with a conversation about the person receiving the gift.
What it does
Kadoku is a mobile-first gift concierge. Tell it who you're buying for, their interests, the occasion, and your budget. It helps narrow down a curated store catalog, explains its top pick, and lets you refine the result without starting over.
You can save people and birthdays, add a gift note, and move from a recommendation to PayPal checkout in the same experience.
How it works
- Gift discovery: A model, connected through LiteLLM, extracts shopping intent from the conversation. Kadoku checks prices, stock, and exclusions against its own database; the model never invents products or prices. A rules-based fallback keeps recommendations available if the model is unavailable.
- Refinement: Ask for a cheaper or more personal option, or exclude an item. Kadoku carries the relevant context into the next recommendation.
- Payments: PayPal Orders v2 powers the Sandbox checkout: create an order, send the buyer to PayPal for approval, verify the capture server-side, and record the result. No live charges.
- Operations: PostgreSQL-backed products, saved recipients, orders, and an admin dashboard make this more than a chat mockup.
Built with
Next.js, React, TypeScript, FastAPI, Python, PostgreSQL, SQLAlchemy, Better Auth, LiteLLM, PayPal REST APIs, and Render.
Current scope and next step
The working prototype uses 100 fictional products and PayPal Sandbox. It's not yet a store that fulfills real purchases. Next we'll onboard verified suppliers, connect inventory and shipping, and test the complete experience with real shoppers.
The goal is straightforward: make choosing and buying a thoughtful gift feel personal, not overwhelming.
Built With
- better-auth
- fastapi
- litellm
- next.js
- paypal-orders-v2
- paypal-rest-api
- postgresql
- python
- react
- render
- sqlalchemy
- typescript
