This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge — Week 1: Touch Grass.
What I Built
CurbNote — Turn Real-World Observations into Actionable Reports
CurbNote is an AI-powered web application designed to help people document public-space problems, such as damaged pavements, broken streetlights, blocked walkways, and overflowing bins.
The idea is simple: instead of just noticing a problem while walking outside, people can record what they observe and turn it into a clear, structured, and editable report with the help of AI.
CurbNote encourages people to step outside, pay attention to their surroundings, and use technology to help make public spaces safer and better.
It is designed for everyday citizens, students, pedestrians, and community members who want to document issues in their neighbourhoods.
The goal: Spend less time scrolling and more time observing, documenting, and improving the world around us.
Demo
🌐 Live Demo: https://curbnote-starter.vercel.app/
Try CurbNote by describing a public-space issue and generating a report.
Code
💻 GitHub Repository: https://github.com/kromkar56/curbnote-starter
The repository contains the source code and project setup instructions.
Contributions, feedback, and suggestions are welcome!
How I Built It
CurbNote is built with React, Vite, and Express.
- Frontend: React and Vite provide a responsive interface for entering observations, generating reports, and editing the results.
- Backend: Node.js and Express handle report-generation requests.
- AI: The project is designed to use a hosted open-weight language model through an OpenAI-compatible API.
- Model provider: OpenRouter, using Gemma, is the planned AI configuration.
- Report generation: The model is instructed to stick to the user's observations rather than inventing details.
- User experience: Generated reports can be edited and copied, and drafts can be saved locally.
The application also includes a template-based fallback for development when AI generation is unavailable.
My focus was to build a practical AI tool that connects digital assistance with real-world observation, rather than creating another app that keeps people on their screens.
Why Does Open Innovation Matter?
Open innovation makes projects like CurbNote more accessible to independent developers and open-source contributors.
Open-weight models give developers more flexibility in choosing how AI is hosted, integrated, and adapted to their needs. They also make it easier to experiment with different models without being locked into a single proprietary AI ecosystem.
For CurbNote, this flexibility is important because the goal is to build a useful, approachable tool that can evolve with community feedback.
Open-source development also allows others to inspect the implementation, suggest improvements, contribute features, and adapt the idea for their own communities.
I believe AI should not only help us work faster on our screens. It should also help us engage more thoughtfully with the world outside them.
My Agent Session
Agent session: Not included yet.
I plan to add a DevRelay session link or embed here if I save a session documenting the development process.
Prize Categories
- Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge — Week 1: Touch Grass
Top comments (0)