
๐ AI Research Assistant
A full-stack AI platform that lets you upload PDFs and have a real conversation with them.
Built to demonstrate RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) as a working product โ not just a concept.
โก Try It Right Now
No setup. No sign-up. Just upload a PDF and start asking questions.
๐ Live URL https://ai-research-assistant-five.vercel.app/
๐ง The Problem It Solves
Reading through long PDFs โ research papers, reports, contracts โ to find specific answers is slow and frustrating.
AI Research Assistant lets you skip straight to the answer:
๐ Upload any PDF document
๐ฌ Ask questions in plain language
๐ Get answers traced back to the exact source chunks
๐ See which parts of the document the AI used to respond
๐ฅ Key Highlights
Full RAG pipeline built from scratch โ chunking, embeddings, vector search, LLM response
Source-attributed answers โ every response is traceable to document sections
ChatGPT-style UI with persistent conversation history and auto-scroll
PDF preview with in-app navigation alongside the chat interface
โจ Features
Feature Description ๐ PDF Upload & Processing Extract, chunk, and embed document text on upload ๐ฌ Conversational Chat Ask questions in natural language, get contextual answers ๐ Semantic Search Vector embeddings power similarity-based retrieval ๐ Source Attribution Responses traced back to specific document chunks ๐ง RAG Pipeline Full retrieval-augmented generation implementation ๐พ Persistent History Conversation saved across sessions โก Real-Time Chat UI Auto-scroll, loading states, smooth interaction ๐๏ธ PDF Preview In-app document viewer with page navigation
๐๏ธ How It Works
๐งฐ Tech Stack
Layer Technology Framework Next.js (App Router) Styling Tailwind CSS Backend Next.js API Routes AI / ML OpenAI / Groq API + Embeddings Database Supabase (PostgreSQL + pgvector) Other PDF parsing, Vector similarity search Deployment Vercel
๐ธ Screenshots
๐ Dashboard
๐ฌ Chat Interface + PDF Preview
๐ Run Locally
Create a
.env.local file in the root:Open http://localhost:3000 and you're in.
๐ฏ Why This Project Matters
Implements a full RAG pipeline โ not just an API call, but chunking, embedding, retrieval, and generation
Demonstrates backend thinking alongside frontend โ vector DB, API routes, and data flow
Focuses on real usability โ source attribution and PDF preview make it an actual tool, not a demo
Shows end-to-end AI product development from scratch to deployment
๐ฎ Planned Improvements
Multi-document querying
Highlight exact source text in PDF viewer
Streaming responses
User authentication + cloud session storage
Chat session management UI
๐ฌ Let's Connect
๐ข Open to: Frontend Engineer ยท Product Engineer ยท Internal Tools Developer ยท Startup Software Engineer ยท AI Application Developer
โญ Found this useful? Star the repo โ it helps others discover it.
1 like ยท 10 views ยท Mar 31, 2026
Developed an AI platform for conversational PDF interaction using RAG.