Nirvan - AI Coach

Minimalist AI coach in your pocket. Expert guidance across fitness, career, mindfulness, relationships, finance, and productivity—powered by GPT-4 and RevenueCat. Carft a coach instantly.

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https://nirvan-ai-coach.vercel.app

Inspiration

Traditional life coaching is expensive, fragmented, and inaccessible to most people. We wanted to create something that brings expert guidance to everyone—across fitness, career, mindfulness, relationships, finance, and productivity—all in one beautiful, minimalist app. Inspired by the productivity tools that Simon's audience loves, we built Nirvan to deliver the right guidance at the right moment, with zero complexity.

What it does

Nirvan is your AI life coach in your pocket. It provides:

  • 6 Specialized AI Coaches: Fitness, Career, Mindfulness, Relationship, Finance, and Productivity—each trained to provide expert, actionable advice
  • Custom Coach Creation: Build your own AI coaches tailored to your specific needs (e.g., "Startup Mentor" or "Coding Tutor")
  • Share Coaches: Distribute your custom coaches with your team or friends with just a tap
  • Freemium Model: 5 free messages per coach (30 total) to try all coaches, then $9.99/month for unlimited access
  • Privacy-First: All conversations stored locally on your device—no cloud, no data sharing
  • Beautiful Design: Clean typography, smooth animations, and thoughtful spacing that makes coaching feel effortless

How we built it

Tech Stack:

  • React Native + Expo for cross-platform development (iOS, Android, Web)
  • GPT-4 API for intelligent, context-aware coaching responses
  • RevenueCat SDK for subscription management, paywalls, and entitlement checking
  • AsyncStorage for local data persistence (chat history, user preferences)
  • Lucide React Native for beautiful, consistent icons
  • TypeScript for type safety and better developer experience

Architecture:

  1. Built a modular coach system where each coach maintains its own conversation history
  2. Implemented per-coach message limits (5 messages per coach for free users)
  3. Integrated RevenueCat's paywall UI for seamless subscription flow
  4. Created a custom coach builder with sharing functionality
  5. Designed a minimalist UI with reusable components and smooth animations

Challenges we ran into

  1. Message Limit Logic: Initially implemented a total message limit (25 messages), but the design called for 5 messages per coach (30 total). Had to refactor the limit checking to be coach-specific.

  2. Keyboard Behavior: The chat interface had issues with the keyboard covering messages. Solved by implementing KeyboardAvoidingView with auto-scroll on keyboard show/hide events.

  3. Context Persistence: Ensuring the user's name and personal context loaded correctly when navigating back to the context screen required careful state management.

  4. Logo Integration: Getting the new logo to display consistently across all pages required updating multiple asset files and clearing the Metro bundler cache.

  5. Privacy vs. Sync: Balancing local-only storage (for privacy) with the desire for cross-device sync. We chose privacy first, storing everything locally.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

✅ Complete RevenueCat Integration: Fully functional freemium model with paywalls, subscription management, and entitlement checking

✅ 6 Specialized Coaches: Each coach provides expert, domain-specific advice powered by GPT-4

✅ Custom Coach Creation: Users can build and share their own AI coaches—a unique feature that adds viral potential

✅ Beautiful, Minimalist Design: Clean UI with smooth animations that feels premium and effortless

✅ Privacy-First Architecture: All data stored locally—no cloud storage, no analytics, complete user privacy

✅ Zero Friction Onboarding: Users can start chatting immediately without creating an account

✅ Per-Coach Message Limits: Implemented a fair freemium model (5 messages per coach) that lets users try all coaches

What we learned

  • RevenueCat Best Practices: How to implement paywalls, check entitlements, and manage subscriptions in React Native
  • Freemium Model Design: Balancing free value with premium incentives—giving users enough to understand the product while encouraging upgrades
  • Privacy-First Development: Building a fully functional app with local-only storage using AsyncStorage
  • AI Prompt Engineering: Crafting system prompts that make each coach feel like a domain expert
  • React Native Performance: Optimizing chat interfaces with FlatList, keyboard handling, and smooth animations
  • User Experience: Creating a seamless multi-coach experience where users can switch contexts throughout their day

What's next for Nirvan - AI Life Coach

Phase 1 (Next 30 Days):

  • 📅 Priority AI Response Times: Faster responses and higher token limits for premium users
  • 📅 PDF Export: Allow users to export coaching conversations as beautifully formatted PDFs
  • 📅 Enhanced Sharing: Make custom coaches discoverable in an in-app marketplace

Phase 2 (60-90 Days):

  • 📅 Goal Tracking Dashboard: Help users set, track, and achieve goals across all life areas
  • 📅 Voice Input: Add voice-to-text for hands-free coaching sessions
  • 📅 Coach Analytics: Show users insights about their coaching patterns and progress

Phase 3 (Future):

  • 📅 Cross-Device Sync: Optional cloud sync for users who want their conversations on multiple devices
  • 📅 Team Coaching: Shared coaches and conversations for teams and organizations
  • 📅 Integration with Wearables: Connect with Apple Health, Fitbit, etc. for fitness coaching

Our Vision: Make expert life coaching accessible to everyone, replacing what would cost thousands in traditional coaching with a single, affordable subscription.

If you're having any trouble accessing it in TestFlight, just send me your Apple ID email (to ramkgvn@gmail.com) and I will manually add you to the build. The current build has already been approved and is stable.

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