WeBuddhist Creator Assistant — Bodhisattva Challenge

A chat-assistant website that helps Buddhist content creators make short videos for The Bodhisattva Challenge — a 365-day journey through Śāntideva's Bodhicharyavatara.

The creator picks a day; the app pulls that day's verses, plan, and classical commentary from a local clone of the source repo, gives a simple plain-language summary of the verse (in English or हिन्दी Hindi), suggests the video ideas that day's material can support, and generates either a ready-to-read script or a shot-by-shot video structure. Results can be regenerated, refined by chatting, and (for scripts) turned into narrated audio.

Stack

• Frontend: React (Vite) — guided chat UI.
• Backend: Django + Django REST Framework.
• LLM + TTS: Google Gemini (one API key for both text and audio).
• Source content: a local clone of the bodhisattvacharyavatara-rails repo.

Architecture

frontend (React/Vite)  ──HTTP──>  backend (Django REST)  ──reads──>  rails repo (markdown)
                                          │
                                          └──> Gemini API (summary · script · structure · audio)

The backend reads the day-plan and per-verse commentary files directly from disk (no database for app data — generated content is ephemeral and flow state lives in the browser). It runs one Gemini call to decide which ideas a day supports, and fills editable prompt templates ("skills") to generate everything else.

The creator flow

1. Pick a day (1–365).
2. See the day — a Day / Chapter / Verses / Date strip plus today's verse text.
3. Verse summary — a few short, plain-language bullet points explaining the verse. The language toggle (top right) switches the entire experience between English and हिन्दी Hindi — summaries, UI labels, and generated content all follow the chosen language.
4. Pick a verse, then pick a video idea — each verse expands into a card showing the available idea types as tabs (Story, Concept, Challenge, Extra info, Creative, Testimony). Each idea shows one or more specific angles as clickable option cards; tapping one commits to that angle and moves forward.
5. Choose the output type — Video script (a ready-to-read spoken script) or Video structure (a storyboard: timed beats with on-screen visuals + voiceover).
6. Pick a duration — 30 / 45 / 60 / 90 seconds.
7. Get the result, then ↻ Regenerate for a fresh take, or chat to refine it ("make the hook punchier", "shorten the opening"). Scripts can also be turned into narrated audio.

Video ideas

Each idea type has a distinct SVG tab icon and may surface multiple angles (e.g. two Story options appear as "Story 1" and "Story 2"):

Idea	What it does	When offered
Story	A story or parable from the source material	when the material contains one
Concept	Explains the core idea of the verse	always
Challenge	Frames today's practice as a doable dare	always
Extra info	A surprising detail or fun fact from the texts	when the material contains one
Creative	A secular, universal video about the lesson — no scripture or Buddhist references, for everyone	always
Testimony	Shapes the creator's own personal notes into a first-person reflection	always

The backend decides which ideas are available for a given day via an LLM analysis of the source material; Story and Extra info only appear when the texts genuinely support them.

Local setup

Quick start

make install        # backend venv + deps, frontend npm install
make dev            # runs backend (:8001) and frontend (:5173) together; Ctrl+C stops both

Backend (manual)

cd backend
python3 -m venv venv
venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
cp .env.example .env        # then edit .env

Set in backend/.env:

• RAILS_REPO_PATH — absolute path to your local clone of bodhisattvacharyavatara-rails.
• GEMINI_API_KEY — your Google Gemini API key (summary, script, structure, audio).

venv/bin/python manage.py migrate          # built-in tables only
venv/bin/python manage.py check_content    # verify it can read the rails repo
venv/bin/python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8001

Frontend (manual)

cd frontend
npm install
cp .env.example .env        # VITE_API_BASE_URL defaults to http://localhost:8001
npm run dev                 # http://localhost:5173

Open http://localhost:5173 and start with a day number (e.g. 5).

Without a GEMINI_API_KEY, day loading still works and idea availability falls back to a keyword heuristic — but the verse summary, script, structure, and audio all require Gemini and return a clear "not configured" message.

API

Method	Path	Purpose
GET	/api/health/	status + whether Gemini is configured
GET	/api/days/<n>/	verses, chapter, date, verse text, available ideas
POST	/api/verse-summary/	{day, language} → {points} — language is english or hindi
POST	/api/script/	{day, ideaKey, durationSeconds, language, focus?, creatorNotes?, feedback?, previous?} → {script}
POST	/api/structure/	{day, ideaKey, durationSeconds, language, focus?, creatorNotes?, feedback?, previous?} → {structure}
POST	/api/audio/	{script, voice?} → {audioUrl}

• language — "english" or "hindi"; passed to all generation endpoints so the output is produced in the chosen language end-to-end.
• focus — optional object {text, typeLabel, label} that pins generation to a specific idea angle when a tab offers multiple options (e.g. Story 1 vs Story 2).
• feedback + previous — power the chat-to-refine step; omit for a fresh generation.

The "skills" (prompt templates)

Every generation is driven by an editable markdown template in backend/assistant/prompts/ — tune tone, structure, and rules without touching code (changes take effect on the next request, no restart needed):

File	Role
_shared.md	Shared, source-faithful context + voice rules for scripts
concept.md, practice.md, testimony.md, story.md, extra_info.md	Per-idea script angles
creative.md	Self-contained Creative script (secular, no source references)
verse_summary.md	Simple plain-language verse summary (English/Hindi)
structure.md	Source-faithful video storyboard
structure_creative.md	Secular, universal storyboard for the Creative idea
assistant.md	Greeting / persona

Security & limits

• Rate limiting — the Gemini-backed endpoints are throttled (default 20/min for generation, 60/min elsewhere; tune via THROTTLE_GENERATE / THROTTLE_ANON in .env) to protect the API budget.
• Input caps — creatorNotes, script, and feedback are length-capped.
• Production guards — with ENV=production, the app refuses to start if DEBUG is on or DJANGO_SECRET_KEY is left at the insecure default.
• Caching — day content and idea analysis are cached in memory; identical audio requests reuse the existing file. Verse summaries are cached in production and regenerated live in local dev.

Deployment

See DEPLOY.md for EC2 (gunicorn + nginx).