ProfAI - AI Professor-in-a-Box

An intelligent course management system that automates syllabus operations, weekly pacing, and student triage using AI-powered multi-agent routing. Think of it as a "TA in a box" that handles routine course questions while intelligently escalating complex issues to the professor.

🎯 Project Overview

ProfAI is designed to manage course operations rather than just teaching content. It acts as a smart assistant that:

• Answers student questions about course policies, concepts, and schedules
• Automatically triages queries to determine if they need professor attention
• Generates weekly announcements based on course schedules
• Provides insights to professors about student confusions and concerns

The system uses a human-in-the-loop approach where AI handles routine tasks and escalates complex or sensitive issues to the professor.

🏗️ Architecture

Tech Stack

• Framework: Next.js 14+ (App Router) with TypeScript
• Styling: Tailwind CSS + Shadcn/UI components
• Backend: Supabase (PostgreSQL + Auth + Edge Functions)
• AI: Google Gemini via LangChain
• Vector DB: Supabase Vector (pgvector) for RAG
• State Management: React Server Components + useOptimistic for chat

Key Components

1. Multi-Agent Router: Classifies student queries into three categories:

   • POLICY (Syllabus questions) → Routes to Syllabus Agent
   • CONCEPT (Learning questions) → Routes to Concept Agent
   • ESCALATE (Personal/Complex issues) → Creates escalation for professor

2. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation):

   • Chunks syllabus and course content into vector embeddings
   • Retrieves relevant context for accurate responses
   • Provides source citations (e.g., "See Syllabus page 4")

3. Sunday Night Conductor:

   • Automated weekly announcement generator
   • Reads course schedule and generates week-specific announcements
   • Creates drafts for professor review and approval

🚀 Core Features

For Students

Chat Interface

• Ask questions about the course in natural language
• Receive instant responses with source citations
• Get answers about:
  • Course policies (deadlines, grading, attendance)
  • Course concepts and materials
  • Weekly schedules and upcoming assignments

Smart Escalation

• Personal issues (e.g., "I'm sick, can I have an extension?") automatically create escalation tickets
• Students receive confirmation when their query has been escalated
• All sensitive queries are flagged for professor review

For Professors

Professor Dashboard

1. Announcement Drafts Widget

• View automatically generated weekly announcements
• Review and edit before publishing
• Approve announcements to publish them to students

2. Escalation Queue

• See all student queries that need personal attention
• View student name, email, query text, and timestamp
• Resolve escalations after addressing student concerns

3. Pulse Report

• 3-bullet summary of "Top Student Confusions"
• Based on analysis of chat logs
• Helps professors identify topics that need clarification
• Shows total queries and escalation counts

Manual Controls

• Trigger Sunday Night Conductor manually to generate announcements
• View and manage all course content
• Monitor system activity and student engagement

System Features

Intelligent Query Classification

The Agent Router uses AI to classify each student query:

• POLICY: Questions about syllabus, deadlines, grading policies

  • Example: "When is the midterm?"
  • Routes to: Syllabus Agent (RAG over syllabus content)

• CONCEPT: Questions about course material, lectures, concepts

  • Example: "Can you explain recursion?"
  • Routes to: Concept Agent (RAG over lecture notes/content)

• ESCALATE: Personal, complex, or sensitive issues

  • Example: "I'm having personal issues and need an extension"
  • Routes to: Escalation Handler (creates ticket for professor)

Source Citations

Every AI response includes citations:

• "See Syllabus page 4, section 2.3"
• "See Lecture Week 5, slide 12"
• Helps students verify information and find original sources

Strict "I Don't Know" Policy

• If the AI can't find relevant information in the course materials
• If retrieval confidence is low (< 0.7)
• Automatically escalates to professor rather than hallucinating answers

📋 User Flows

Student Flow

1. Login/Signup → Student creates account or logs in
2. Onboarding (First-time only) → Professor uploads syllabus PDF and schedule CSV
3. Chat Interface → Student asks questions in natural language
4. Get Response → Receives answer with citations or escalation confirmation
5. View Escalations → Can see status of escalated queries

Professor Flow

1. Login/Signup → Professor creates account with professor role
2. Course Setup → Upload syllabus PDF and schedule CSV
3. Weekly Routine:
   • Review and approve Sunday Night Conductor announcements
   • Check Escalation Queue for student issues
   • Review Pulse Report for insights
4. Ongoing Management:
   • Resolve escalations
   • Edit and publish announcements
   • Monitor student questions and confusion patterns

Sunday Night Conductor Flow

1. Automated Trigger → Runs every Sunday night (or manually triggered)
2. Schedule Analysis → Reads course schedule to determine current week
3. Announcement Generation → AI generates week-specific announcement in professor's persona
4. Draft Creation → Saves announcement as draft in professor dashboard
5. Professor Review → Professor reviews, edits, and approves announcement
6. Publication → Approved announcement is published to students

🔧 Technical Implementation

Multi-Agent System

User Query
    ↓
Agent Router (Classification)
    ↓
┌──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ POLICY   │ CONCEPT  │ ESCALATE │
│ Agent    │ Agent    │ Handler  │
│          │          │          │
│ RAG over │ RAG over │ Creates  │
│ Syllabus │ Lectures │ Ticket   │
└──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘
    ↓
Response with Citations

Database Schema

• profiles: User accounts (students/professors)
• courses: Course metadata
• course_content: Chunked syllabus/lecture content with vector embeddings
• schedules: Weekly schedule data (from CSV)
• escalations: Student escalation queue
• announcements: Weekly announcements (drafts + published)
• chat_logs: Chat history for analytics

API Endpoints

For Students

• POST /api/chat - Send chat message, receive AI response
• GET /api/announcements - Get published announcements

For Professors

• GET /api/escalations - Get escalation queue
• GET /api/announcements - Get all announcements (drafts + published)
• POST /api/announcements - Create announcement
• PUT /api/announcements/:id - Update/publish announcement
• POST /api/conductor - Trigger Sunday Night Conductor
• GET /api/pulse - Get pulse report data

Shared

• POST /api/upload - Upload syllabus PDF and schedule CSV

🛠️ Development Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ and npm
• Supabase account
• Google Cloud account (for Gemini API)

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/A5bhinav/SyllabusOS.git
   cd SyllabusOS

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

3. Set up environment variables

   Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your credentials:

   # Supabase Configuration
   NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL=your_supabase_project_url
   NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY=your_supabase_anon_key
   SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY=your_supabase_service_role_key
   
   # Google Gemini AI Configuration
   GOOGLE_GENAI_API_KEY=your_google_gemini_api_key
   
   # Application Configuration
   MOCK_MODE=false  # Set to true for development (saves API costs)
   DEMO_MODE=false  # Set to true to mock system time to Week 4
   DEMO_WEEK=4

4. Set up Supabase

   • Create a new Supabase project
   • Run database migrations (see supabase/migrations/)
   • Enable pgvector extension

5. Run development server

   npm run dev

   Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

🧪 Development Modes

Mock Mode

Set MOCK_MODE=true in your .env file to:

• Skip actual API calls to Gemini
• Return mock responses for testing
• Save costs during development
• Test UI without API dependencies

Demo Mode

Set DEMO_MODE=true and DEMO_WEEK=4 to:

• Mock system time to a specific week
• Test Sunday Night Conductor logic
• Demo the app without waiting for real time

📁 Project Structure

ProfAI/
├── app/                      # Next.js App Router
│   ├── api/                  # API Routes
│   │   ├── chat/            # Chat endpoint
│   │   ├── upload/          # File upload handler
│   │   ├── conductor/       # Sunday Night Conductor trigger
│   │   ├── escalations/     # Escalation CRUD
│   │   ├── announcements/   # Announcement CRUD
│   │   └── pulse/           # Pulse report data
│   ├── (auth)/              # Auth routes
│   ├── (dashboard)/         # Dashboard routes
│   │   ├── student/         # Student dashboard
│   │   └── professor/       # Professor dashboard
│   └── layout.tsx           # Root layout
├── components/              # React components
│   ├── ui/                  # Shadcn/UI components
│   ├── student/             # Student-specific components
│   ├── professor/           # Professor-specific components
│   └── shared/              # Shared components
├── lib/
│   ├── agents/              # Multi-agent router
│   │   ├── router.ts        # AgentRouter (classifies queries)
│   │   ├── syllabus-agent.ts    # POLICY agent
│   │   ├── concept-agent.ts     # CONCEPT agent
│   │   └── escalation-handler.ts # ESCALATE handler
│   ├── rag/                 # RAG implementation
│   │   ├── vector-store.ts  # Vector store client
│   │   ├── chunking.ts      # Document chunking logic
│   │   └── retrieval.ts     # Retrieval logic
│   ├── conductor/           # Sunday Night Conductor
│   │   └── sunday-conductor.ts
│   ├── ai/                  # AI client abstraction
│   │   ├── client.ts        # Gemini AI client
│   │   └── langchain-setup.ts
│   ├── supabase/            # Supabase client setup
│   │   ├── client.ts        # Client-side client
│   │   └── server.ts        # Server-side client
│   └── utils/               # Utility functions
├── supabase/
│   ├── migrations/          # Database migrations
│   └── functions/           # Edge Functions
│       └── sunday-conductor/
├── types/                   # TypeScript types
└── docs/                    # Project documentation

🎓 Use Cases

Example 1: Policy Question

Student asks: "When is the midterm exam?"

System response:

• Agent Router classifies as POLICY
• Routes to Syllabus Agent
• Retrieves relevant syllabus section via RAG
• Returns: "The midterm exam is scheduled for October 15th, 2024. See Syllabus page 8, section 4.2."

Example 2: Concept Question

Student asks: "Can you explain how binary search works?"

System response:

• Agent Router classifies as CONCEPT
• Routes to Concept Agent
• Retrieves relevant lecture content via RAG
• Returns: "Binary search is a divide-and-conquer algorithm... See Lecture Week 6, slide 15."

Example 3: Escalation

Student asks: "I'm experiencing a family emergency and won't be able to submit the assignment on time."

System response:

• Agent Router classifies as ESCALATE
• Routes to Escalation Handler
• Creates escalation ticket in database
• Returns: "I understand your situation. Your request has been escalated to the professor for review. You'll receive a response within 24-48 hours."

Example 4: Sunday Night Conductor

Every Sunday at 11 PM:

• System checks course schedule
• Determines it's Week 5
• Generates announcement: "Welcome to Week 5! This week we'll be covering recursion and data structures. Don't forget the assignment is due Friday at 11:59 PM..."
• Saves as draft for professor review
• Professor approves and publishes Monday morning

🤝 Team Workflow

This project is designed for a 2-person team:

• Lead Architect (Backend): Multi-Agent Router, RAG implementation, Sunday Night Conductor logic
• UI/UX Specialist (Frontend): Student/Professor Dashboards, Escalation Queue UI, component design

The architecture allows parallel development with clear API contracts.

📝 License

ISC

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built with Next.js, Supabase, Google Gemini, and LangChain.