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Srijan Halder
Srijan Halder

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ListingForge

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Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission đź’¸

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle

ListingForge ⚡ — The Open-Weight AI E-Commerce Listing Studio

What I Built

ListingForge is a local-first, open-weight AI listing studio that turns raw product photos into high-converting, platform-optimized listings for Etsy, eBay, Shopify, and Poshmark in under 30 seconds.

Who Would Pay for It?

Full-time vintage resellers, boutique owners, thrift flippers, and handmade Etsy artisans.

The Pain Point & Problem It Solves

Taking photos of inventory takes 2 minutes. But writing the listings is an agonizing bottleneck that takes 15 to 30 minutes per item:

  1. Etsy Search Demands 13 Strict Tags: If you don't use all 13 tags, your visibility is slashed. If any tag exceeds 20 characters, Etsy rejects it.
  2. eBay Cassini Penalizes Wasted Space: eBay gives you exactly 80 characters for titles. Missing structured "Item Specifics" drops your ranking, while missing condition notes triggers costly "Item Not As Described" return disputes.
  3. Cloud AI is Too Expensive: Multi-photo vision requests to proprietary APIs (GPT-4o or Claude 3.5 Sonnet) cost \$0.15–\$0.25 per item. For a reseller listing 100 items a week, cloud API bills eat into narrow margins.

The Business Model

  • The ROI: Cuts listing creation from 20 minutes to 30 seconds. For an active seller listing 25 items a week, it saves 7+ hours of admin work every week.
  • Pricing: A \$19–\$29/month subscription or a \$49 lifetime desktop license (similar to iconic Mac productivity apps).
  • Zero Marginal Cost: Because inference runs on open-weight models locally, the operating cost per listing is \$0.00.

Demo

  • GitHub Repository: https://github.com/Srijanhub/ListingForge
  • Instant 1-Click Presets: The studio includes 5 built-in, pre-configured items with vector SVG mockups (Vintage 90s Leather Biker Jacket, Hand-thrown Ceramic Pour-Over Dripper, Retro 1980s Casio Gold Watch, Mid-Century Teak Lamp, Y2K Levi's 501 Jeans). Evaluators don't even need photos on hand—just click a preset to see instant multi-platform generation! 
# Clone and run locally in seconds
git clone https://github.com/Srijanhub/ListingForge.git
cd ListingForge
npm install
npm start
# Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser
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Code

GitHub logo Srijanhub / ListingForge

ListingForge ⚡

Open-Weight AI E-Commerce Listing Studio for Etsy, eBay, Shopify & Poshmark

Turn product photos into polished, platform-optimized, top-ranking listings in seconds using 100% open-weight vision & language models.

đź’ˇ Why Someone Would Actually Pay For This

Every day, millions of independent e-commerce sellers—vintage pickers, Etsy artisans, boutique owners, and full-time eBay resellers—face the same grueling bottleneck:

  • The Problem: Photographing products is fast, but writing listings is excruciating. Crafting high-converting SEO titles, researching 13 Etsy search tags under 20 characters, filling out eBay's algorithmic Item Specifics, and writing dispute-proof condition notes takes 15 to 30 minutes per item.
  • The Cost of Bad Listings: Missing tags mean zero Etsy search impressions. Vague condition disclosures cause painful "Item Not As Described" returns. Suboptimal titles get buried by the eBay Cassini algorithm.
  • Why Cloud AI Fails Sellers: Cloud APIs (GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet) cost $0.15–$0.25 per multi-photo item. For a seller listing…
View on GitHub

How I Built It

ListingForge is built around a flexible, multi-tiered open-source AI architecture:

  1. Local Open-Weight Vision Models (Ollama):
    • Direct connection to local Ollama running on http://127.0.0.1:11434.
    • Automatically probes GET /api/tags to discover installed open-weight vision models: Llama 3.2 Vision (llama3.2-vision), Qwen2-VL (qwen2-vl), Moondream2 (moondream), and LLaVA (llava).
    • Takes multi-photo base64 arrays to inspect texture, fabric, brand labels, and natural wear/patina locally on Apple Silicon GPU/MPS.
  2. Hugging Face Open-Weight Router:
    • Fallback to open-weight models (Qwen/Qwen2-VL-7B-Instruct) hosted via the Hugging Face router for users without local GPU hardware.
  3. Built-in Domain Heuristic Engine:
    • A comprehensive e-commerce rule and taxonomy engine that extracts vintage dating rubrics and category benchmarks with zero setup required.
  4. Marketplace Compliance & Quality Scorer:
    • Real-time SEO Auditor (0–100 score, Grade A–F): Live recalculation testing title keyword density, Etsy 13-tag counts, 20-character tag limits, and dispute-proof condition notes.
    • Profit Margin & Fee Calculator: Deducts platform transaction fees (Etsy 6.5%, eBay 13.25%, Shopify 2.9%), Cost of Goods (COG), and shipping to display true net profit.
  5. Bulk Exporters:
    • RFC-4180 compliant CSV export engine ready for Etsy Bulk Upload, eBay File Exchange / MIP, and Shopify Products CSV.
  6. Automated Testing:
    • Comprehensive 63-point test suite (node test.js) validating platform constraints, tag lengths, and CSV syntax.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

Open innovation and open-weight models are the only reason a product like ListingForge can exist as a sustainable side hustle:

  1. Zero Marginal Inference Cost: Closed API tokens turn a side business into an API billing liability. Open-weight models running on the user's laptop make inference completely free forever.
  2. Intellectual Property & Privacy: Artisans selling bespoke handmade pieces or vintage pickers discovering rare uncataloged items often refuse to send photos to cloud servers before public release. On-device models ensure client photos never leave their laptop.
  3. Offline Flea Market & Estate Sale Utility: Estate sale pickers and flea market resellers often operate in basements, warehouses, or rural locations with zero Wi-Fi. With local open-weight models, sellers can inventory and batch-generate listings on the go.
  4. Deterministic Rule Constraints: Open-source prompt engineering paired with local structured JSON outputs lets us strictly enforce platform rules (e.g., Etsy's unforgiving 20-character tag cutoff and eBay's 80-character title limit) without vendor lock-in.

My Agent Session

Built with the assistance of Google Antigravity, leveraging agentic pair programming to architect the multi-engine adapter pattern, design the responsive Studio UI, construct the 63-point test suite, and implement RFC-4180 CSV exporters.

My First User

I shared an early build with a friend who runs a vintage clothing resale side-hustle on Etsy and eBay. Every Sunday, she spent 4 to 5 hours measuring, researching tags, and drafting descriptions for 20 garments.

Using ListingForge with 4 photos per jacket/denim, her Sunday listing time dropped to under 35 minutes. Her immediate feedback: "If you can give me 13 tags that don't get rejected by Etsy's character limit and format the eBay specifics table automatically, I would happily pay \$20 a month just to get my Sunday afternoons back."

Prize Categories

  • Side Hustle (Primary)
  • Local Inference & Open-Weight AI
  • Developer Productivity & Creator Tools

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