NeuroAid OSS

NeuroAid OSS is the first offline cognitive companion, offering mental health support without internet, cost or stigma. Built on gpt-oss and fine-tuned with CBT and WHO mhGAP resources.

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About the Project

NeuroAid OSS is an open-source, agentic mental health companion designed to feel alive. Unlike closed, black-box chatbots, NeuroAid is built on open-weight models (gpt-oss:20b today, scale-ready tomorrow), ensuring transparency, privacy, and adaptability. It integrates CBT frameworks, journaling, grounding techniques, and crisis support into a lightweight but production-grade platform.

Our goal is simple yet bold: AI that genuinely cares.

Inspiration

The spark came from a shared reality: mental health support is often expensive, inaccessible, or impersonal. We asked ourselves:

What if help could be open, transparent, and free from lock-in?

What if an AI companion could respond with empathy, not just information?

That vision shaped NeuroAid OSS — open-source AI for humanity, not just technology.

How We Built It

Frontend polish: Glass-pill navbar, pastel conversation bubbles, buttery streaming text with a blinking caret for “alive” responses.

Backend core: Python/FastAPI app powered by gpt-oss:20b, structured for modular fine-tuning.

Safety net: Crisis badge integrated directly into the UI, with always-visible dropdown emergency contacts.

Utility layer: Journal export (JSON & CSV) → proof of production readiness.

OSS ethos: Repo built cleanly with app.py + theme.css, fully reproducible and hackathon-ready.

What We Learned

UI/UX matters more than raw tech — a judge-first, human-first interface turns a model into an experience.

Safety and trust can’t be add-ons — crisis integration and transparency must live at the core.

Open weights = resilience — by choosing gpt-oss:20b, we avoided black-box dependence and future-proofed the project.

Challenges We Faced

Streaming finesse: Getting replies to flow word-by-word smoothly instead of bulk dumping required careful async handling.

Balance of empathy vs. structure: Designing responses that feel human while still adhering to CBT frameworks.

Polish under pressure: Building production-grade UI, backend stability, and OSS repo hygiene within hackathon deadlines. Closing Note

NeuroAid OSS isn’t just a hackathon submission. It’s a step toward open, empathetic, and trustworthy AI that anyone, anywhere, can access.

“At the end of the day, this isn’t about technology. It’s about dignity. It’s about care.”

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