AYA - AI-powered Hardware Assistant

AYA is an open-source, AI-powered hardware development platform that serves as a complete digital partner for hardware engineers. It combines visual system design, component management, compatibility analysis, and AI-assisted technical consultation in a single web application.

Features

• Visual System Design — Interactive drag-and-drop system diagrams powered by @xyflow/react
• Component Management — Centralized tracking of parts, ordering status, pricing, and specifications
• Compatibility Analysis — Automated voltage, communication protocol, and power compatibility checking
• AI Technical Assistant — GPT-4 powered consultation for component selection and troubleshooting
• Auto-Save — Real-time project persistence with automatic recovery on reload
• File Uploads — Attach images, PDFs, and Excel files to projects
• Undo/Redo — Full edit history (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y)
• Resizable 3-Panel UI — PBS (Project Breakdown Structure), main workspace, and AI chat
• GitHub Integration — Software-hardware compatibility verification via repository analysis

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	Next.js 15, React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS 4
Diagram	@xyflow/react 12
Backend	Next.js API Routes, NextAuth.js
Database	PostgreSQL 13+, Prisma 6
AI	OpenAI GPT-4, Anthropic Claude
File Processing	multer, xlsx, puppeteer

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (20+ recommended)
• PostgreSQL 13+

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-org/aya-hardware.git
cd aya-hardware

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Generate Prisma client
npx prisma generate

Environment Setup

Copy the example environment file and fill in your values:

cp .env.local.example .env.local

# .env.local
DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/aya_dev"

NEXTAUTH_SECRET="your-secret-key"
NEXTAUTH_URL="http://localhost:3000"

# AI providers
OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

# Optional: component pricing
NEXT_PUBLIC_OCTOPART_API_KEY="your-octopart-key"

Database Setup

# Create database (run in psql)
CREATE DATABASE aya_dev;

# Run migrations
npm run db:setup

Run

# Development (with Turbopack)
npm run dev

# Development (without Turbopack, if you hit build issues)
npm run dev:safe

Open http://localhost:3000.

Usage

System Diagram

Right-click the canvas to add a component node. Drag between node ports to create connections. Double-click a node label to rename it.

Parts Management

Open the Parts Management tab to fill in component details (voltage, communication protocol, model number). These fields feed into the compatibility checker.

Compatibility Check

Click Compatibility Check to automatically analyze:

• Voltage conflicts (e.g. 5 V vs 3.3 V mismatches)
• Communication protocol conflicts (I2C, SPI, UART, etc.)
• Power supply vs consumption balance

AI Chat

Ask the AI assistant in the right panel for component recommendations, wiring advice, or design review. Attach datasheets (PDF/image) for contextual analysis.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+S	Manual save
F5	Reload (data is preserved)

Development

# Run tests
npm test

# Lint
npm run lint

# Build
npm run build

# Prisma Studio (database GUI)
npm run db:studio

# Database migration
npm run db:migrate

Troubleshooting

Module not found

rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json && npm install

Database connection error

• Ensure PostgreSQL is running: brew services start postgresql@15 (macOS) or sudo systemctl start postgresql (Linux)
• Verify DATABASE_URL in .env.local

AI chat not working

• Check OPENAI_API_KEY is set and valid in .env.local

Turbopack build error

• Use npm run dev:safe to run without Turbopack

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.

License

MIT