FriendFocus — Turning Study Panic into a Realistic Plan with Gemma

Komal Kumari — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 11:20:09 +0000

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Weekend Challenge: Build for a Friend

What I Built

FriendFocus is a small AI-powered study planner I built for a friend who often feels overwhelmed when there is too much to study and too little time.

Instead of giving a generic timetable, FriendFocus takes a student's situation in natural language, such as:

“I have an exam tomorrow, 3 chapters to cover, and only 2 hours.”

It then uses Gemma 4 26B A4B IT to create a realistic, time-based study plan with focused study blocks, breaks, revision, and simple anti-procrastination advice.

I wanted to build something practical and small enough that a student could actually use it when they are stressed about an upcoming exam.

Demo

The generated plan includes focused study blocks, breaks, and final revision based on the available time.

🌐 Live Demo: https://friendfocus.netlify.app/

FriendFocus takes a student's current study situation and generates a realistic, personalized study plan using Gemma 4 26B A4B IT.

Try it yourself by entering a situation like:

“I have an exam tomorrow, 3 chapters to cover, and only 2 hours.”

Code

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/Komaltanu05/friendfocus

The repository contains the complete frontend, Netlify Function, and configuration used to run FriendFocus.

How I Built It

FriendFocus is built around Gemma 4 26B A4B IT (gemma-4-26b-a4b-it) as its open AI model.

Tech Stack

React
Vite
TypeScript
CSS
Netlify Functions
Google GenAI SDK
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT

The frontend collects the student's situation and sends it as JSON to a Netlify serverless function.

The server-side function securely accesses the GEMINI_API_KEY environment variable and sends the request to Gemma. The generated response is then returned to the frontend and displayed as a structured study plan.

I also added timeout protection and response validation so that the application can handle slow model responses more gracefully.

The project was developed with AI-assisted coding, while the final application, prompts, integration, testing, and deployment were verified through the working project.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Open innovation makes experimentation much more accessible.

For a small project like FriendFocus, I could take an open-weight model such as Gemma and build a focused application around a real problem instead of needing a large AI infrastructure or building a model from scratch.

It also makes learning more practical. I could experiment with the model, understand how the application communicates with it, and turn an idea into a working product that can be shared with others.

For me, open innovation means that a simple idea from a student can become a usable tool through accessible models, frameworks, and developer communities.

Prize Categories

Gemma — FriendFocus is powered by Gemma 4 26B A4B IT.

INTRO

Komal Kumari — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 14:28:36 +0000

I'm new to the community ,happy to be the part of dev.

DEV Community: Komal Kumari