Mtaani - AI-Powered Responsible Tourism Platform for Kenya

Mtaani is a tourism platform that combines AI assistance, real-time safety monitoring, verified local businesses, and community-driven insights to help travelers discover and navigate Nairobi safely.

Features

Core Platform

• User authentication with phone verification
• Real-time social feed with posts and interactions
• AI travel assistant with conversation memory
• Interactive map with PostGIS geospatial data
• Emergency system with SOS and location sharing
• Dark and light mode support

Social Features

• Create, view, and interact with posts
• Like, comment, repost, share, and bookmark with live counters
• Read receipts with delivery and read status
• Typing indicators in feed comments
• Online presence tracking

AI Intelligence

• Conversation memory across sessions
• Nairobi knowledge base integration
• Semantic search for relevant information
• Personalized recommendations based on user preferences

UI/UX

• Loading skeletons for content fetching
• Pull-to-refresh on mobile devices
• Optimistic updates for instant post creation
• Glassmorphic floating chat panel
• Infinite scroll pagination

Technology Stack

• Backend: Elixir 1.19+, Phoenix 1.7.21, LiveView 1.0.18
• Database: PostgreSQL 18 with PostGIS 3.6
• Caching: Redis for read receipts and session management
• Vector Database: Pinecone for RAG memory
• AI: Groq API with Llama 3, HuggingFace embeddings
• Frontend: Tailwind CSS, MapLibre GL
• Maps: OpenStreetMap with PostGIS geospatial queries

Prerequisites

• Elixir 1.19+ and Erlang/OTP 26+
• PostgreSQL 16+ with PostGIS
• Node.js 22+
• Redis
• Git

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/philaturo/Mtaani.git
cd Mtaani ```

Install Elixir dependencies:

mix deps.get

Install Node Dependancies

cd assets && npm install && cd ..

Configure your database in config/dev.exs with your PostgreSQL credentials. Create and migrate the database with PostGIS

mix ecto.create
mix ecto.migrate
psql -U postgres -d mtaani_dev -c "CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS postgis;"

Start Redis (Windows):

cd redis && ./redis-server.exe

Start the Phoenix server:

mix phx.server

Visit http://localhost:4000 to see the application.

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root:

# Groq AI API Key (required)
GROQ_API_KEY=gsk_your_key_here

# Redis Configuration
REDIS_HOST=localhost
REDIS_PORT=6379

# Pinecone Vector DB (for RAG)
PINECONE_API_KEY=your_key_here
PINECONE_ENVIRONMENT=gcp-starter
PINECONE_INDEX=mtaani

# HuggingFace API (for embeddings)
HUGGINGFACE_API_KEY=hf_your_token_here

Roadmap

Completed features:

• User authentication
• Social feed with X-style interactions
• AI assistant with RAG and memory
• Real-time chat with read receipts
• Emergency safety features
• PostGIS geospatial data
• Glassmorphic UI with dark and light mode

In progress:

• RAG knowledge base expansion
• Map enhancements

Planned:

• Image and voice sharing
• Push notifications
• Trip planning
• WhatsApp integration
• Native mobile application