Venturai

Made in ~19 hours at the HackUSU hackathon, 02/27-28/2026
@Spencer1O1 · @bell-kevin · @StevenChristensen444 · @dillanhart

Project Abstract

Venturai is a cross-platform asset assessment and maintenance coordination system that helps teams capture equipment condition in the field, route findings into actionable work items, and monitor operational risk in a shared dashboard. The platform combines guided inspections, role-based workflows, and AI-assisted analysis so inspectors, operators, and maintainers can move from reported issues to tracked remediation with a consistent audit trail.

Technical details: the monorepo uses pnpm + Turborepo with TypeScript across an Expo mobile app, a Next.js web dashboard, and a Convex backend; inspection submissions can include photo evidence and structured questionnaire inputs, while backend functions validate AI outputs and update persistent asset/work-item records.

Stack

• pnpm + Turborepo
• Expo (Expo Router) mobile app
• Next.js web dashboard
• Convex backend (auth, DB, serverless functions, storage)
• Biome formatter/linter
• TypeScript everywhere

Screenshots & demos

Dashboard (risk overview, asset list, work items):

Dashboard	Asset / CNC Router	Work items

Mobile app (home, public asset view, private inspection):

App home	Public asset view	Private view

Videos (may render inline on GitHub; otherwise open the links to play):

App walkthrough Download app.mp4

NFC scan Download scan.mp4

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (LTS recommended)
• pnpm (via corepack enable below)
• Convex account (free at convex.dev)
• For mobile: Android Studio and/or Xcode (for device/simulator)

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Setup (from scratch)

1. Clone and install

git clone <repo-url>
cd venturai
corepack enable
pnpm install

2. Convex project and URL

Create a Convex project and get your deployment URL:

pnpm dev:backend

On first run, Convex CLI will prompt you to log in and create or link a project. When it’s running, it will print a URL like https://xxxxx.convex.cloud. Leave this running in a terminal (or stop it after you’ve copied the URL).

3. Environment variables

Copy the example env file and set the Convex URL in one place (repo root):

cp .env.example .env.local

Edit .env.local in the repo root and set the same Convex URL for all three variables (no spaces around =):

CONVEX_URL=https://your-deployment.convex.cloud
NEXT_PUBLIC_CONVEX_URL=https://your-deployment.convex.cloud
EXPO_PUBLIC_CONVEX_URL=https://your-deployment.convex.cloud

• CONVEX_URL – used by the Convex CLI and seed script.
• NEXT_PUBLIC_CONVEX_URL – used by the Next.js dashboard.
• EXPO_PUBLIC_CONVEX_URL – used by the Expo mobile app.

A postinstall script symlinks (or copies) root .env.local into apps/web, apps/expo, and backend. If you add or change vars later, run pnpm install from the repo root so packages pick up the file again.

4. Convex dashboard: OpenAI key (for seed)

The Idea Factory seed uses AI to evaluate inspection photos. Add your OpenAI API key in Convex:

1. Open the Convex dashboard, select your project.
2. Go to Settings → Environment Variables.
3. Add OPENAI_API_KEY with your key (required for pnpm run seed:idea-factory).

5. Run the seed (optional but recommended)

Seed creates the USU Idea Factory org, assets, a seed user [email protected] / password, and runs real AI assessments on bundled photos.

From the repo root:

pnpm run seed:idea-factory

Requirements:

• CONVEX_URL in root (or backend) .env.local (step 3).
• OPENAI_API_KEY set in Convex (step 4).
• Backend deployed (e.g. run pnpm dev:backend once so Convex has the latest functions).

Seed images are under data/usu/idea_factory/ in the repo; the script uploads them and runs assessments. After seeding you can sign in on the dashboard or mobile as [email protected] / password and see the Idea Factory org and assets.

To re-seed from a clean slate: in the Convex dashboard run the mutation seed:clearIdeaFactorySeed (with optional orgName: "USU Idea Factory"), then run pnpm run seed:idea-factory again.

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Running the app

All three (backend + web + Expo) in parallel

From repo root:

pnpm dev

• Backend: Convex dev server (functions, schema, sync).
• Web: Next.js dashboard (e.g. http://localhost:3000).
• Expo: Metro bundler; press w for web, a for Android, i for iOS.

Run individually

pnpm dev:backend   # Convex (keep running while using app)
pnpm dev:web       # Next.js dashboard
pnpm dev:expo      # Expo (then choose platform)

Mobile device / simulator

pnpm dev:expo
# then: a (Android) or i (iOS)
# or:
pnpm dev:android
pnpm dev:ios

Ensure EXPO_PUBLIC_CONVEX_URL is set in .env.local (same as CONVEX_URL) so the app talks to your Convex deployment.

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Useful scripts

Command	Description
pnpm dev	Run backend + web + Expo together (no nfc)

| pnpm dev:backend | Convex dev server | | pnpm dev:web | Next.js dashboard | | pnpm dev:expo | Expo (Metro) | | pnpm expo:prebuild Prebuilds native folders | | pnpm dev:android | Run expo dev client for android (with nfc, requires prebuild) | | pnpm run seed:idea-factory | Seed Idea Factory org, user, and AI assessments | | pnpm lint | Lint all packages | | pnpm format | Format with Biome | | pnpm typecheck | Type-check all packages | | pnpm build | Build all packages | | pnpm test | Run tests | | pnpm clean | Remove node_modules, .turbo, build caches |

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Project layout

venturai/
├── apps/
│   ├── expo/          # Mobile app (Expo Router)
│   └── web/           # Next.js dashboard
├── backend/           # Convex (schema, functions, auth, seed)
│   ├── convex/
│   └── scripts/
├── data/              # Seed images (e.g. data/usu/idea_factory/...)
├── scripts/           # Shared scripts (e.g. symlink-env.js)
├── tooling/
├── .env.example
├── .env.local         # Your env (create from .env.example)
└── package.json

Environment: one .env.local at the repo root (see step 3); it is symlinked into apps and backend so Convex URL and other vars are shared.