PORUCH

An AI-powered guide helping military families and veterans navigate benefits, services, and next steps with confidence.

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PORUCH – AI Case Navigator for Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families

Inspiration

PORUCH is my first software project, created during OpenAI Build Week.

I am not a professional software engineer. Before this challenge, I had never built a complete web application or deployed an AI-powered product. OpenAI Build Week gave me the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone and turn an idea into something real.

The inspiration behind PORUCH is deeply personal.

My husband has been defending Ukraine since the very first days of the full-scale war. Living through this experience has shown me how difficult it can be for servicemembers, veterans, and their families to understand available support, navigate official procedures, and simply know where to start.

People often spend hours searching through government websites, legal documents, and community groups, trying to piece together reliable information while already dealing with stressful life situations.

I wanted to build something that could reduce this uncertainty.

Not by replacing professionals or legal advisors, but by helping people understand their situation, organize the available information, and confidently take the next step.

That idea became PORUCH.

What it does

PORUCH is an AI Case Navigator designed specifically for servicemembers, veterans, and military families.

Instead of immediately generating generic answers, PORUCH first understands the user's situation through a structured conversation.

It asks only the most relevant follow-up questions and then generates a personalized action plan that includes:

  • a summary of the situation;
  • possible forms of support;
  • documents that may be required;
  • relevant institutions or official channels;
  • clear next steps.

The assistant is intentionally designed to communicate in a calm, supportive, and human way while avoiding unsupported legal claims or requests for sensitive personal information.

How I built it

PORUCH was built with:

  • React + Vite
  • Node.js + Express
  • OpenAI Responses API
  • GPT-5.6 Terra
  • JSON Schema structured outputs
  • Vercel -Codex

Rather than creating a traditional chatbot, I focused on designing an AI that behaves like a real case navigator.

The assistant works in two distinct modes:

Question Mode carefully collects only the information required to understand the user's situation without repeating questions or generating unnecessary summaries.

Plan Mode transforms that information into a structured, personalized action plan that users can immediately follow.

The application supports both Ukrainian and English, includes consultation progress tracking, and is optimized for desktop and mobile devices.

Challenges

The biggest challenge was not writing React components or connecting APIs.

The real challenge was designing trustworthy AI behavior.

I spent considerable time refining prompts and structured outputs so the assistant asks meaningful questions, avoids repetitive conversations, does not invent legal information, and provides practical guidance instead of generic AI responses.

Deploying the application on Vercel with a production-ready backend was another important milestone and a valuable learning experience.

What I learned

Building PORUCH completely changed my perspective on software development.

Although this is my first software project, I learned how modern AI tools can dramatically accelerate development while still requiring thoughtful product design, prompt engineering, testing, debugging, and continuous iteration.

Most importantly, I learned that successful AI applications are built not only with code, but with empathy.

Technology becomes truly valuable when it helps people solve real problems.

AI-assisted development

GPT-5 played a central role throughout the development process.

It helped me design prompts, improve conversation flow, refine structured JSON outputs, debug implementation issues, and iterate on the overall user experience.

AI significantly accelerated development, while I remained responsible for defining the product vision, making architectural and UX decisions, implementing features, testing, and integrating the final solution.

Why PORUCH matters

Behind every military case is a real person.

Sometimes an entire family.

People facing difficult situations should not have to spend hours searching for answers while feeling overwhelmed and uncertain.

PORUCH was created to make those first steps easier.

It is a fully functional MVP demonstrating how AI can help people better understand complex situations and confidently move forward with a clear, personalized action plan.

Vision

PORUCH is more than a chatbot.

It is my vision of how AI can become a trusted guide for people facing complex life situations.

In the future, I hope to evolve PORUCH into a platform that combines trusted official information with personalized AI guidance while remaining accessible, transparent, and human-centered.

Regardless of what happens after Build Week, building PORUCH has shown me that technology can solve meaningful human problems—and that this is the kind of work I want to continue doing.

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