Essence is a Duolingo-inspired app for cultural learning.
Instead of teaching languages, it helps users explore traditions, rituals, food, and music from around the world — through AI-powered micro-lessons.

• Type a culture/topic → AI curates content from Qloo API
• Summarized by Groq LLM → Generates flashcards + quizzes
• Gamified UI → Flashcards, quizzes, and lesson streaks (coming soon)

• Each course in essence is called a mosaic (like how mosaic artwork is formed from different pieces, essence can let users learn and piece together different cultures and artforms )
• Mosaics can be created by signing in to the website
• Each mosaic contains a study guide and then a quiz part

• 🔍 Search Any Culture – Enter any cultural tradition (e.g., Japanese Tea Ceremony).
• 🧠 AI Lessons – Groq LLM summarizes info into short lessons by getting the recomendation from the qloo taste api for enhancing the learning experience.
• 🃏 Flashcards – Flip cards to memorize cultural terms and meanings.
• ❓ Quizzes – Quick multiple-choice quizzes for recall.

• Frontend: React (Vite) + Hooks
• Styling: Tailwind CSS (or basic CSS)
• APIs:
  • Qloo API – Cultural data
  • Groq LLM – Summarization and quiz generation

flowchart TD
    A[User inputs culture topic] --> B[Qloo API: Fetch cultural data]
    B --> C[Groq LLM API: Summarize & generate quiz + flashcards]
    C --> E[React UI: Render lesson, flashcards, and quiz]

Setup & Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/essence.git
cd essence

3. Install dependencies

npm install

4. Configure Environment Variables Create .env file based on .env.example:

VITE_QLOO_API_KEY=your_qloo_api_key
VITE_GROQ_API_KEY=your_groq_api_key
VITE_PEXELS_API_KEY=your_pexels_api_key

4. Run the development server

npm run dev

• User Input: Type a culture (e.g., “Japanese Tea Ceremony”).
• API Flow:
  • Fetch cultural data from Qloo API and fetches some key data that can enhance the llm learning experience
  • the groq llm gets it and then creates a mosaic (i.e course)
  • Summarize + create flashcards/quiz via Groq LLM
  • UI Render: Display lesson, flashcards, and quiz interactively.