{"slug": "building-myzubster-from-a-working-ai-gateway-to-github-contributor-onboarding", "title": "Building MyZubster: From a Working AI Gateway to GitHub Contributor Onboarding", "summary": "The MyZubster team built a signed HTTPS gateway connecting its Vercel deployment to a VPS backend running local AI services, resolving HTTP 502 errors on requests to its Zorgax assistant. The assistant now uses a deterministic GitHub onboarding guide backed by conversation history, passing 4/4 regression tests, though a subsequent test showed the model drifting from the onboarding flow into unrelated character discussion instead of guiding the user through 'gh auth login'.", "body_md": "**How we connected Vercel, our VPS, local AI, and a step-by-step GitHub guide — and what our real-world tests taught us.**\n\nBuilding an open-source platform is not just about writing code. It's about making technology accessible to people who may have never used GitHub, configured a development environment, or contributed to a repository before.\n\nAt **MyZubster**, we're working toward a decentralized ecosystem where people can share skills, collaborate on projects, and build independent services.\n\nToday, we made measurable progress on one important part of that vision: **Zorgax, our AI assistant.**\n\nOur application runs through Vercel, while part of our backend infrastructure and local AI services operate on a VPS.\n\nPreviously, requests to the Zorgax assistant could fail with HTTP 502 errors.\n\nWe worked on a signed HTTPS gateway connecting the Vercel deployment to the VPS backend.\n\nThe result:\n\nThis is an important infrastructure milestone, but it does not mean every feature is finished.\n\nWe want Zorgax to do more than answer general questions.\n\nOne of its first practical responsibilities is to help people join MyZubster through GitHub.\n\nA new contributor should be able to say:\n\nHi Zorgax, help me create a GitHub profile for MyZubster.\n\nAnd receive a clear first step, rather than a complicated technical explanation.\n\nWe introduced a local GitHub onboarding guide that starts with:\n\n**Step 1 — Create your GitHub account.**\n\nVisit [https://github.com/signup](https://github.com/signup), complete the registration, and return when ready.\n\nThe assistant also reminds users not to share passwords or verification codes.\n\nOur first live tests revealed a problem.\n\nZorgax correctly started the registration process, but after a contributor supplied a GitHub username, it sometimes restarted Step 1.\n\nWe traced the issue to the onboarding rules.\n\nWe then introduced username recognition and used conversation history to identify whether the contributor had already started the registration process.\n\nThe updated assistant can now respond:\n\nStep 2 — You've provided your GitHub username. Open PowerShell and check your Git and GitHub CLI installations.\n\nThis change was tested before deployment.\n\n**Regression test results: 4/4 passed.**\n\nThe tests covered:\n\nAfter applying the change, restarting the VPS service, and testing the public chat, we confirmed that Zorgax progressed to Step 2 instead of restarting registration.\n\nOur VPS runs local AI services, including Ollama.\n\nDuring the onboarding tests, we observed two response paths:\n\n`local-rule · github-guide` — deterministic instructions for GitHub onboarding.`local-ollama · qwen2.5:3b` — responses generated by the local language model.\nThe test responses reported `privacy_local_only`, indicating local processing for those requests.\n\nThis architecture allows us to combine predictable instructions for critical workflows with a language model for more flexible assistance.\n\nHowever, the distinction matters: a model-generated answer is not the same as a verified workflow step.\n\nOur next test simulated a Windows user who had Git and GitHub CLI installed.\n\nInstead of progressing to GitHub authentication, Zorgax switched to Ollama and began discussing the creation of a MyZubster character.\n\nThat wasn't the expected response.\n\nThe correct next step should be to guide the contributor through:\n\n```\ngh auth login\n```\n\nThen verify authentication using:\n\n```\ngh auth status\n```\n\nWithout requesting passwords, tokens, or private credentials.\n\nThis exposed the next engineering task: extending the deterministic onboarding guide so that the AI doesn't lose track of the contributor's actual objective.\n\nWe are not presenting this part as complete.\n\nOur next development priorities are:\n\nLonger term, we want Zorgax to support the MyZubster marketplace, contributor collaboration, and independent projects — without making the platform unnecessarily complicated.\n\nMyZubster is exploring a model where contributors can participate not only by writing code, but also by offering services, documenting knowledge, testing software, and connecting independent projects.\n\nA useful AI assistant should lower the barrier to participation.\n\nIt should explain one step at a time, remember progress, avoid claiming that something has been verified when it hasn't, and help people become more independent.\n\nToday we didn't finish the entire onboarding journey.\n\nBut we verified that our Production assistant can start it, recognize a GitHub username, and continue to the next step.\n\n**Small, tested improvements are how an open-source ecosystem becomes usable.**\n\nWebsite: [https://www.myzubster.com](https://www.myzubster.com)\n\nZorgax assistant: [https://www.myzubster.com/zorgax](https://www.myzubster.com/zorgax)\n\nGitHub: [https://github.com/MyZubster-Ecosystem](https://github.com/MyZubster-Ecosystem)\n\nWe're interested in contributors who want to help simplify onboarding, improve local AI workflows, test the marketplace, or explore decentralized collaboration.\n\n**What would you expect an open-source AI assistant to do when helping a complete beginner make their first GitHub contribution?**", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/building-myzubster-from-a-working-ai-gateway-to-github-contributor-onboarding", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/danielioni/building-myzubster-from-a-working-ai-gateway-to-github-contributor-onboarding-4l6e", "published_at": "2026-10-21 05:37:13+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-21 05:47:49.271935+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-tools", "ai-infrastructure", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["MyZubster", "Zorgax", "Vercel", "Ollama", "GitHub", "qwen2.5:3b"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/building-myzubster-from-a-working-ai-gateway-to-github-contributor-onboarding", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/building-myzubster-from-a-working-ai-gateway-to-github-contributor-onboarding.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/building-myzubster-from-a-working-ai-gateway-to-github-contributor-onboarding.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/building-myzubster-from-a-working-ai-gateway-to-github-contributor-onboarding.jsonld"}}