🏙️ Indianapolis Digital Assistant for Civic Engagement and City Services — IndyChat

IndyChat is a scalable, AI-powered chatbot platform designed to assist the residents, workers, and visitors of Indianapolis, Indiana. Built for the Chatbot for Public Safety Hackathon, the project bridges the gap between people and the city’s public services using a modern tech stack, real-time information delivery, and intelligent civic engagement tools.

🔗 Live: indychat.vercel.app
💻 GitHub: github.com/Purv-Kabaria/IndyChat

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🌟 Highlights

• AI chatbot powered by Dify with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• Complaint and report submission through chat
• TTS/STT support via ElevenLabs
• Google Maps + city image embeds
• Admin dashboard for monitoring, publishing, user and data management

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💡 Key Features

🗨️ Smart Chat Interface

• Built with shadcn/ui and modeled after ChatGPT’s layout
• Context-aware, locality-specific query handling
• Temporary and saved chat history support

📍 City Info + Navigation

• Live Google Maps directions
• Images and metadata of Indianapolis landmarks
• Event, safety, transit, and service-based Q&A

🛠️ Admin Panel

• Upload PDFs as bot knowledge base (RAG-ready)
• View/manage users, complaints, and conversation logs
• Create city-wide announcements and blog posts

🎙️ Voice Support

• Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text via ElevenLabs

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend:

• Next.js 15 (App Router, Server Actions, Edge Functions)
• TypeScript, Tailwind CSS v3, shadcn/ui

Backend:

• Firebase Auth, Firestore, Cloud Functions
• Dify AI with custom prompt design
• Cloudinary for image handling
• ElevenLabs for voice services

Deployment:

• Hosted on Vercel

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⚙️ Local Setup Instructions

⚠️ For casual users, use the live site. Local setup requires Firebase/Dify credentials and some configuration effort.

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/Purv-Kabaria/IndyChat
cd IndyChat

2. Install Dependencies

npm install
# or
pnpm install

3. Setup Environment Variables

Create a .env.local file and configure:

• Firebase project settings (API key, Auth domain, DB URL, etc.)
• Dify API keys
• ElevenLabs API key
• Cloudinary keys

This also requires setting up Firestore indexes and OAuth redirect domains in Firebase Console.

4. Run Dev Server

npm run dev
# or
pnpm dev

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🧪 Test Accounts

Admin:

• Email: [email protected]
• Password: admin12345678

User:

• Email: [email protected]
• Password: user12345678

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📁 Project Structure

/app              → App Router-based pages and layouts (Next 15)
/components       → Reusable UI components
/lib              → Firebase & utility logic
/pages/api        → API endpoints (server functions)
/public           → Static assets and images
/styles           → Tailwind base + global styles

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🚀 Deployment

Deployed using Vercel with automatic CI from GitHub.
Ensure .env variables are securely configured in Vercel’s dashboard for production. An example .env.example file is given in the repository.

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👨‍💻 Team

• Purv Kabaria
• Rushang Bagada
• Gaurav Damor
• Jenil Prajapati
• Krishna Tahiliani