This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle
Empowering botanical micro-businesses, terrarium artisans, and plant side-hustlers with local open-weight AI, interactive vector CAD, and deterministic microclimate simulation.
What I Built
TerraForge Studio is a local-first, zero-cloud-fee computer-aided design (CAD) workspace, biological microclimate simulator, and commerce co-pilot built specifically for boutique terrarium artisans, micro-botanical shop owners, and plant craft side-hustlers.
Boutique living terrariums and mossariums are booming artisan craft products. Makers sell handcrafted Wardian cases, apothecary jars, and bio-active domes on Etsy, Shopify, and at weekend local farmers' markets for $65 to $160+ each. However, running a botanical micro-business involves three painful roadblocks:
Biological Trial-and-Error (The $40 Mistake): Improper substrate layering (e.g., missing an activated charcoal filtration barrier or having insufficient LECA drainage) leads to root rot, sour anaerobic odors, and dead plants within 14 days—triggering customer refund requests and lost reputation.
Wholesale Margin & Supplier Exposure: High-margin builders source rare bryophytes, tissue-culture cuttings (Marcgravia), and vintage glassware from niche wholesale distributors. Feeding raw Bills of Materials (BOM) or supplier invoices into closed third-party cloud AI tools exposes proprietary vendor pricing and business margins.
SaaS Subscription Fatigue: When an artisan craft margin is $40–$55 per terrarium, paying $29–$49/month for cloud AI tools and subscription software eats up a significant portion of their profits. Worse, weekend craft fairs, greenhouse basements, and pop-up markets rarely have dependable Wi-Fi.
The Solution
TerraForge Studio replaces clunky spreadsheets, handwritten care tags, and costly cloud APIs with a single unified, local-first studio:
Interactive SVG Vector CAD Canvas: Artisans pick glass vessels, adjust 5-layer substrate depths to the millimeter, and drag-and-drop living specimens (Fittonia, Cushion Moss, Maidenhair Fern, Dragon Stone, Springtail clean-up crews) with real-time scale, rotation, and layering controls.
Deterministic Bio-Compatibility Engine: Dynamically calculates relative humidity (RH%), grow-light lux, and ecosystem stability, instantly warning makers before they pair rotting desert succulents with high-humidity cloud forest flora.
Commercial Unit Economics & Margin Calculator: Automatically tabulates the raw Bill of Materials (glass + substrate millimeters + specimens), factors in artisan assembly labor, and outputs retail pricing and net profit margins.
Local Open-Weight AI Co-Pilot: With zero cloud API fees, it synthesizes high-converting Etsy SEO listings (with 13 algorithm tags), printable Botanical Care Passports for buyers, and pre-shipping pathology audits.
Demo
Live Deployed App (Vercel): [https://terraforge-studio.vercel.app](https://terraforge-studio.vercel.app)
GitHub Repository: [https://github.com/Dev-Suraj-Dhawal/terraforge-studio](https://github.com/Dev-Suraj-Dhawal/terraforge-studio)
Local Quick Run: Clone the repository and execute python -m http.server 8080 (or npx serve .), then open [http://localhost:8080](http://localhost:8080).
Interactive Workflow Walkthrough
Choose Vessel & Stratigraphy: Select between a Geometric Wardian Case, Victorian Apothecary Jar, Erlenmeyer Bio-Flask, Botanical Bowl, or Gallery Cylinder. Adjust LECA drainage, activated charcoal, sphagnum barrier, ABG soil mix, and silica sand with instant millimeter precision.
Plant & Design in Vector CAD: Drag living flora and hardscape specimens into the glass container. Scale, mirror, and arrange the micro-landscape visually with zero latency.
Check Live Bio-Telemetry: Watch the real-time Viability Index (0–100%), internal humidity (RH%), and automated pathology alerts. Tune Unit Economics: Adjust the assembly labor slider ($5–$45) and retail markup multiplier (1.5x–3.5x) to view real-time raw COGS, retail price, and net profit.
Generate Commerce Deliverables via Local AI: Click Generate to produce an Etsy SEO listing with 13 tags, a printable customer Care Passport card, or a pre-shipping audit—running locally at $0.00 marginal cost.
Export Blueprint: Export an architectural vector blueprint SVG with one click for workshop records and physical assembly. Code
The complete source code is modular, zero-dependency, and open-source under the MIT license:
Interactive Terrarium CAD, Real-Time Microclimate Bio-Simulator & Local Open-Weight AI Side-Hustle Operating System
TerraForge Studio is an all-in-one computer-aided design (CAD) workspace, biological compatibility engine, and automated e-commerce co-pilot created specifically for artisan terrarium makers, micro-botanical studio owners, and plant side-hustlers.
Boutique bio-active terrariums are high-margin, artisan products frequently sold at weekend farmers' markets, pop-up events, and craft marketplaces like Etsy and Shopify. However, builders face critical pain points:
Architecture Overview
index.html: Clean semantic single-page layout styled with Tailwind CSS and glassmorphic botanical aesthetics.
assets/js/catalog.js: Data models for vessel geometries, substrate physical depths, wholesale costs, and botanical biome specifications.
assets/js/state.js: Reactive application state store, canvas drag coordinates, and pre-configured presets (Zen Mossarium, Fittonia Rainforest, Bio-Conflict Test).
assets/js/vector-engine.js: Pure SVG 2.0 rendering pipeline with dynamic clip-paths, organic wave substrate calculations, specimen transforms, and vector export.
assets/js/bio-simulator.js: Deterministic biological rule validator calculating internal microclimates and cohabitation viability.
assets/js/economics.js: Dynamic Bill of Materials (BOM) cost engine and margin calculator.
assets/js/ai-copilot.js: Local Ollama bridge (http://localhost:11434/api/generate) and zero-fee offline structured JSON generation harness. assets/css/style.css: Botanical color palette, glassmorphism filters, tactile slider controls, and ambient mist animations.
How I Built It
TerraForge Studio is engineered around open-source AI and offline-first computing:
The core intelligence runs on Ollama serving open-weight models locally:
llama3.2:3b / llama3.2-vision:11b: High-speed, low-memory local text synthesis for marketing copy, sensory hooks, and 13 Etsy tags.
qwen2.5:7b-coder: Specialized structured JSON generation for precise care cards and packaging instructions.
Zero-Fee Fallback: If an artisan does not have Ollama installed, the browser seamlessly falls back to a deterministic structured engine so the software never breaks or throws error screens.
General-purpose LLMs are notorious for hallucinating plant advice (such as suggesting closed jars for arid cacti). Instead of letting an unconstrained model invent biological facts, TerraForge Studio runs a deterministic rule engine before calling the open model:
Calculates physical substrate ratios (enforcing false bottom drainage >= 18mm and activated charcoal filtration).
Cross-references plant humidity thresholds (RH%) and light requirements (Lux). Injects verified physical data, warnings, and exact pricing context into the structured JSON prompt.
The open-weight model acts as a creative synthesizer bound by strict scientific constraints.
Why Does Open Innovation Matter?
Open-source and local-weight AI are not just technical preferences for this project—they are the foundational reason this business tool can exist:
An artisan maker's moat is their supply chain: the wholesale glassblower in Ohio, the private greenhouse supplying rare Marcgravia cuttings, or their personal labor cost buffer. Closed SaaS AI tools collect user prompts to retrain models. By running open-weight models on the maker's laptop via Ollama, proprietary BOMs, supplier costs, and profit margins never leave their machine.
When selling an artisan terrarium for $75, the raw materials cost ~$28 and labor is ~$16, leaving a net profit of ~$31. If an artisan must pay $29–$49 every month for a cloud AI subscription, a slow sales month wipes out their profit. With local open-weight inference, the operational cost is $0.00 forever.
Boutique sellers build in basement workshops, potting sheds, and sell at outdoor weekend farmers' markets or flea fairs where Wi-Fi is nonexistent or cell service is saturated. TerraForge Studio runs 100% offline from a single laptop battery.
Closed cloud APIs frequently change model behaviors and unpredictably hallucinate care instructions. An open-weight approach paired with client-side guardrails guarantees reproducible, scientifically sound botanical advice every single time.
My Agent Session
This project was built from the ground up using Google Antigravity paired with autonomous agent workflows and verified via the DevRelay session harness. The agent session documented:
Iterative mathematical modeling of substrate volume depths and organic wave curvature in SVG.
Structuring strict JSON response schemas for Etsy listing titles, hooks, and 13 algorithmic SEO tags.
Refactoring a 2,100+ line monolith into an enterprise-grade modular architecture.
Real-world verification deploying live to production on Vercel: https://terraforge-studio.vercel.app. My First User
To validate whether someone would actually pay for this, I shared TerraForge Studio with Elena, an independent botanical designer who runs a boutique plant craft side-hustle selling closed mossariums at weekend craft markets:
Her biggest headache: "I used to spend 25 minutes after every market sale writing out customized care cards by hand on index cards, or answering Instagram DMs from customers whose moss turned brown because they kept it in direct hot sun."
Her reaction to TerraForge Studio: "The automated Care Passport alone saves me 2–3 hours every weekend drop. I can design the jar in 60 seconds, print the care card, and tuck it under the lid."
Would she pay? She stated she would happily pay a $20 to $30 one-time license to own the software offline, but would immediately cancel any recurring $20/month SaaS subscription.
Her feature request: A batch CSV exporter for market inventory barcodes—now added to the v2 development roadmap!
Prize Categories