Gift Genie — AI-Powered Gift Recommendation Engine
A full-stack conversational AI application that helps users find the perfect gift through an interactive chat experience.
Gift Genie pairs a personality-driven AI assistant modelled on the genie from Aladdin with real-time web search to guide users from "I have no idea what to buy" to a purchase link in minutes. The genie narrows down options through quick-fire questions, searches for real products within the user's budget and location, and presents curated suggestions with direct purchase links.
Key Features
- Conversational gift discovery, guided "this or that" exchanges narrow preferences without overwhelming the user
- Live product search, integrated web search finds real products with prices and purchase links
- Wildcard mode, a temperature dial that pushes the AI toward bolder, more creative suggestions
- Real-time streaming, responses stream token-by-token using Server-Sent Events for a responsive chat experience
- Persistent conversations, full chat history stored in cloud PostgreSQL on Supabase, accessible across sessions
- Authentication, using email/password and Google OAuth sign-in
Tech Stack
- Frontend: React 19, React Router, Tailwind CSS, Radix UI
- Backend: Express 5 (TypeScript), Server-Sent Events for streaming
- AI: Anthropic Claude API with web search tool integration
- Database: Supabase (PostgreSQL)
- Auth: Better Auth (session-based, Google OAuth)
- Build: Vite 6, ViteExpress
What I Built
This was built end-to-end as a solo project — from the conversational UX design and prompt engineering through to the streaming infrastructure, authentication system, and database layer. The streaming implementation handles Claude's multi step web search flow (pause/resume turns) and includes client disconnect detection for clean resource management.