This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 1: Touch Grass
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What I Built
FloraFind & Grounded is a gamified single-page web application (SPA) designed to solve a universal developer problem: terminal fatigue, continuous debugging burn-out, and excessive screen time. Built specifically for Week 1 of the Hacktoberfest 2026 DEV Challenge ("Touch Grass"), this project turns stepping away from the desk into an interactive, rewarding outdoor quest.
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🌟 Key Highlights:
🌿 "Screen-Time Detox" Quest Engine :
- Generates real-world outdoor challenges ("Inspect Sidewalk Chlorophyll" ,"Locate 3-Leaf Hardware Redundancy" ,"Deep Canopy Sunlight Audit" ).
- Category filtering (Quick 5-Min ,Flora Scavenger ,Deep Forest Debug ).
- Logs outdoor uptime minutes, Grass XP points, and levels upon completion.
🤖 Cloud Open Innovation AI Identifier ("FloraFind") :
- Accepts both natural language plant descriptions and direct leaf photo uploads via camera/file picker.
- Communicates with Google AI Studio open-weight models (Gemma 2 andGemini Flash ).
- Compiles plants into hilarious developer-centric botanical specifications (Hardware Redundancy ,Photosynthesis SLA ,Developer Patch Notes ).
- Features an **Interactive Percentage ** with dynamic 6-step ticker and anti-freeze timeouts.
- Includes an Offline Simulator Fallback mode if no API key is provided or network is offline.
📊 Outdoor Uptime & Streak Dashboard :
- Tracks total outdoor minutes, active daily streaks, quests completed, and plant scans logged.
- Unlockable Developer Grass Badges (Seedling Debugger ,Touch Grass Protocol ,Solar Streak ,Quantum Photosynthesis ).
- Light & Dark mode theme engine with dynamic toggle.
- 100% persisted locally in browser
LocalStorage.
🔒 Privacy-First Client Architecture :
- No hardcoded API keys. User keys are stored only in the browser's
LocalStorage. - Direct HTTPS requests to Google AI Studio with zero intermediary backend servers.
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Demo
🚀 Live Application Demo:
https://ujjwalgupta2021.github.io/FloraFind-and-Grounded/
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Code
💻 GitHub Repository:
https://github.com/ujjwalgupta2021/FloraFind-and-Grounded
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How I Built It
🧠 Open-Source & Open-Weight AI Architecture
This application is built around Google AI Studio's open model endpoints, featuring Google's Gemma open-weight series (gemma-2-27b-it, gemma-2-9b-it) and fast multimodal models ( gemini-2.0-flash, gemini-1.5-flash).
Automated Connection & Model Securer :
- When a user inputs an API key, the app calls
ModelService.ListModels(https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models) to discover authorized models. - It runs an automated priority candidate test sweep to lock in a guaranteed 200 OK connection without requiring users to navigate complex dropdown settings.
AbortController Timeout Engine :
- Built a custom
fetchWithTimeout()wrapper with an optimal 19-second master deadline and 19-second direct fetch budget. - Prevents browser requests from hanging indefinitely on slow or unresponsive endpoints.
Frontend Stack : #
Core : Vanilla HTML5, Modern Modular JavaScript (ES6+) #
Styling : Tailwind CSS (Play CDN) + Vanilla CSS Glassmorphism & Keyframe Animations #
Icons : Lucide Icons #
State Persistence : BrowserLocalStorage
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Why Does Open Innovation Matter?
Open innovation and open-weight models (such as Google's Gemma family) are fundamental to the future of software development:
Transparency & Sovereignty : Open-weight models give developers full visibility into model behavior and parameter architectures, removing black-box dependency on proprietary closed APIs. 2. Client-Side Privacy Architecture : Open endpoints allow applications likeFloraFind to construct direct, peer-to-endpoint calls straight from the user's browser, enabling privacy-first architectures where user keys and personal data stay client-side. 3. Unlocking Creative Developer Tooling : Open innovation allows developers to build specialized, niche AI experiences—like compiling real-world plants into hilarious developer SLA patch notes—without prohibitive licensing or API lock-in constraints.
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My Agent Session
This application was planned, architected, and built with the assistance of an autonomous agent swarm using Antigravity 2.0.
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Prize Categories
🏆 Grand Prize / Open Innovation Track : Best application leveraging open-weight AI models (Google Gemma / AI Studio). #
🌿 Touch Grass Week 1 Theme Track : Best project encouraging physical outdoor interaction, screen-time detox, and real-world exploration.
Built with 💚 for the Hacktoberfest 2026 Week 1 DEV Challenge — Go Touch Grass!