Koa, the conversational therapist and mascot of our app
Map displaying the user's progress until 100 wXP
Home screen on mobile
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Chat with AI therapist
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KoaCoach

Your personalized wellness coach that actually supports you

Inspiration

Two-thirds of our generation deals with mental health challenges, but most wellness apps feel cold and generic. They give everyone the same advice, track the same metrics, and wonder why people stop using them after a week.

We wanted to build something different—a wellness coach that learns who you are, adapts to your specific situation, and keeps you engaged long enough to actually make a difference.

What it does

KoaCoach is your personal wellness companion powered by an AI wellness coach that feels genuinely human. You can have real conversations about what's bothering you, journal your thoughts, and build healthy habits through our gamified system.

The core is our conversational AI wellness coach, trained on expert demonstrations to provide thoughtful, personalized responses. It remembers your history, understands your communication style, and offers relevant suggestions for whatever you're dealing with.

We use a points system called wellness experience points (wXP) that you earn through journaling, talking with your AI coach, and staying consistent. It's inspired by Duolingo's approach—simple gamification that motivates without feeling manipulative. Reach 100 wXP and earn a $5 gift card.

Behind the scenes, we use a multi-agent system that handles different aspects of support. One agent manages proactive outreach—calling users when they need encouragement or haven't checked in. Another focuses on ongoing support during conversations. Most importantly, our crisis detection agent monitors conversations for signs of self-harm and immediately alerts mental health professionals when intervention is needed.

The AI builds a comprehensive understanding of your background and challenges over time, so its advice gets more relevant the more you use it.

We also have various surrounding gamified features to keep the personal attachment with the user. Koa sends notifications and phone calls to the user frequently to check-in the situation. Occasionally, Koa will even go on chrome to look for cute images and wellness suggestions, and then automatically draft you a personalized email of what fun it had.

How we built it

React Native frontend with Supabase handling the backend. The real work went into building our multi-agent system and training our conversational AI wellness coach to feel natural while maintaining appropriate boundaries.

The multi-agent architecture handles different support functions—proactive outreach, real-time conversation support, and crisis detection. Each agent is specialized for its role but they work together to provide comprehensive wellness support.

Getting the personality right was the hardest part. Too clinical and people won't open up. Too casual and it loses credibility. We iterated constantly to find that sweet spot where people feel heard and supported.

Coordinating the multi-agent system was complex—making sure the different agents communicate properly and don't conflict with each other took significant debugging.

The gamification system tracks user engagement and progress, rewarding consistency without creating unhealthy obsession with metrics. The web-browsing was done through Unify agent systems - using a planning agent to draft the plan given prompts. Then, a computer agent carries out the browsing using chromium, and a research agent summarizes the finding to draft the email.

Challenges

Supabase integration was trickier than expected, especially around user initialization and wXP tracking during signup. We eventually moved the initialization to first login instead of registration.

The AI conversation flow took countless iterations. Early versions either felt robotic or got too personal too quickly. Finding the right therapeutic tone required extensive fine-tuning.

Voice integration is still a work in progress—getting real-time conversation quality is extremely important.

What we're proud of

We built an AI wellness coach that feels natural and engaging to interact with. The multi-agent system works seamlessly behind the scenes, and we're proud of how well the different agents coordinate without conflicting with each other.

Most importantly, we managed to build a complete, functional wellness platform in just 24 hours that addresses a real problem millions of people face.

The gamification strikes the right balance. Users stay engaged without the system feeling manipulative or superficial.

The overall experience feels cohesive—from onboarding through daily use, everything works together to support genuine wellness habits.

What we learned

AI personality is way harder than AI capability. The technical aspects of natural language processing are well-solved, but creating genuine wellness coaching presence requires deep understanding of human psychology.

React Native debugging on mobile devices takes patience, especially when integrating with external APIs and working under tight hackathon deadlines.

Building a multi-agent system in 24 hours taught us a lot about coordination between different AI components and the importance of clear role definitions.

Social Impact

Mental health support shouldn't be a luxury. KoaCoach democratizes access to personalized wellness coaching by making it available 24/7 at a fraction of traditional therapy costs.

Our platform particularly benefits underserved communities who face barriers to mental health care—whether due to cost, location, stigma, or long waiting lists. The AI wellness coach provides immediate support when people need it most, potentially preventing crises before they escalate.

By gamifying wellness habits, we're helping create a generation that's more proactive about mental health. Instead of waiting until problems become severe, people develop healthy coping mechanisms and self-awareness early.

The crisis detection system has broader implications too—it could identify mental health trends in communities and help direct resources where they're needed most, all while maintaining individual privacy.

What's next

We're adding friend groups so people can support each other's wellness journeys. More reward milestones and achievement systems are coming too.

Better voice integration is a priority—we want conversations with the AI to feel as natural as talking to a friend.

Long-term, we see KoaCoach becoming the go-to platform for personalized mental wellness, helping people build lasting healthy habits through AI that truly understands them.

Safety first

Our crisis detection agent continuously monitors conversations for signs of self-harm or mental health emergencies. When triggered, it immediately connects users with mental health professionals and crisis support resources.

The multi-agent system maintains appropriate boundaries across all interactions—no romantic content, proper age verification, and immediate redirection of inappropriate requests. Each agent is trained to recognize its role and limitations.

KoaCoach: wellness coaching that actually supports you.