Inspiration

Choosing something together often turns into a compromise. We wanted different tastes to become an invitation: each person brings one cultural starting point, then explores new connections together.

What it does

TasteTrail / Sidequests builds a three-act programme: an artist to listen to, a film to watch, and a book to read. Each person searches and confirms the intended artist, film, book, or show. Meet in the middle favors shared candidates; Trade worlds invites each person to explore the other’s side. People can lock a favorite act, swap just one, or rethink all unlocked acts.

How we built it

Qloo Search resolves the chosen cultural entities. For each category, Qloo Insights is queried separately for each seed. A deterministic planner compares stable entity IDs, prefers overlap where appropriate, records returned list positions, tracks exclusions, and preserves locked or untouched scenes during replanning. The interface shows actual tool status and elapsed time. It uses no language model. The server keeps the Qloo key out of the browser.

Challenges and what we learned

Names can match different kinds of entities, so users confirm a search result before planning. Qloo can be slow or unavailable; failed scenes are reported and can be retried instead of being replaced with invented live results. Returned list overlap is evidence for discovery, not a prediction of either individual’s preferences.

What is next

We want to explore richer inputs, durable sessions, and user research on whether cultural exchange helps people discover something together. The local application has completed a live Qloo search, three-act plan, locked-item preservation and film swap. The hosted Qloo flow still needs independent verification.