Reality Layer

Explore the Landscape of Your Mind with AI as Compass

Comment

Inspiration

I wanted to build a tool that helps people understand their own beliefs more deeply and see opposing views with credible sources. In a world full of echo chambers, curiosity and self-reflection are needed more than ever. Using AI to guide this process felt like a powerful way to spark meaningful change.

What it does

Reality Layer lets users submit beliefs and then uses Perplexity’s Sonar API to generate insights, counterpoints, and bias analysis with real citations. It visualizes these beliefs in a constellation-style map where users can explore relationships and reframe their views through guided reflection.

How we built it

  • Backend with FastAPI to handle user input and connect to the Sonar API for generating AI insights.
  • Frontend using Next.js to deliver an interactive and intuitive constellation visualization.
  • PostgreSQL with pgvector to store user beliefs and semantic relationships for clustering.
  • Integration with Sonar API to provide cited, trustworthy counterpoints and reflections.

Challenges we ran into

  • Designing a UX that encourages honest self-reflection without overwhelming users was tricky and took several design iterations.
  • Visualizing abstract belief relationships in a clear, engaging way pushed me to try different graph layouts and interaction models.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Building a full-stack app that seamlessly integrates AI reasoning with user-driven exploration.
  • Creating a unique constellation metaphor that makes complex belief networks approachable and meaningful.
  • Successfully grounding AI-generated insights with citations, which builds trust and encourages open-mindedness.

What we learned

  • The power of AI goes beyond answers — it can guide users to ask better questions about themselves.
  • Citation support is essential for AI insights to feel credible and persuasive.
  • Semantic vector search combined with AI reasoning creates rich, evolving belief maps that invite deeper reflection.

What's next for Reality Layer

  • Add deeper personalization by tracking how users’ beliefs evolve over time.
  • Explore lowering API costs to enable more extensive use of Sonar Deep Research.
  • Build social features so users can share, compare, and discuss their belief constellations with others.
  • Continue refining the UX to better balance insight and simplicity.

Reality Layer is just the beginning of a journey to help people turn conviction into curiosity — with AI as their guide.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates