Soth-Link-AI

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  Stories

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  After signing in

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  The interface

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  Historial Figures

Inspiration

Every family has stories that exist only because someone remembers them. Soth Link AI was inspired by the need to keep those stories from becoming contextless fragments. We wanted to create a digital heirloom for memories, values, traditions, and historical experience—an archive that helps future readers understand what actually mattered.

What it does

Soth Link AI is a digital legacy archiving app. Users create "Time Capsules" for people or historical subjects. They can easily add memories by category, add optional metadata, and use Gemini-powered tools to interact with the archive. The app features a guided AI interview, a memory-grounded legacy chat, AI-generated insight cards, and a keepsake legacy letter.

How we built it

We built it using a React + Vite frontend, Firebase for authentication and frontend data, and an Express backend utilizing the Google Gemini API (via @google/generative-ai). It is deployed on Vercel using serverless functions.

Challenges we ran into

We faced significant challenges deploying the Express backend on Vercel. We encountered a FUNCTION_INVOCATION_FAILED error because of a mismatch between CommonJS (require) and ES Modules (import) in the package.json. We also had to troubleshoot routing issues in vercel.json and ensure our environment variables were configured securely server-side. Finally, we hit a 400 error because Google deprecated the Gemini model we were using, requiring us to update to the newer model.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we successfully debugged the serverless architecture, making the AI communicate securely through the backend. The fallback logic in the UI allows the app to remain fully usable even if the AI is unavailable, gracefully providing grounded answers based on the user's input.

What we learned

We learned the intricacies of Vercel's serverless environment, particularly how to handle CommonJS vs. ES Modules. We also learned the importance of highly specific prompt engineering for grounded AI, ensuring the AI never invents biographical facts but only answers based on the strict archival record.

What's next for Soth-Link-AI

Our next steps are to move away from local-first browser storage and fully integrate secure, server-side database persistence (like Firestore) for cross-device access. We also plan to implement better voice-to-text memory recording and allow users to securely share capsules with family members.

Built With

• react
• vite