ALU Study Buddy

A Claude-powered study assistant built for ALU students. Paste your notes, pick a mode — Explain, Quiz Me, or Summarise — and learn with integrity.

Comment

Inspiration

Every ALU student has notes they don't fully understand. Google doesn't know their course. Claude.ai doesn't know ALU's values or honor code. Nothing existed that was built specifically for us — so I built it.

What it does

ALU Study Buddy is a Claude-powered study assistant for African Leadership University students. You paste your lecture notes, assignment briefs, or exam questions into a notes panel, pick one of three modes, and have a context-aware conversation about your own material.

Three modes, three completely different behaviours:

  • Explain — breaks down concepts in plain language with African context examples
  • Quiz Me — generates practice questions directly from your notes
  • Summarise — produces concise, revision-ready summaries

The app refuses to write essays or complete assignments. It is built to support learning, not replace it.

How we built it

  • Backend: FastAPI deployed on Render, calling the Anthropic Claude API with mode-specific system prompts
  • Frontend: React + Vite deployed on Vercel, using ALU's official brand colors (#002E6D blue, #D00D2D red)
  • Persistence: localStorage keeps your session alive across refreshes and new tabs
  • Uptime: A cron job pings the backend every 15 minutes to keep Render's free tier awake

Challenges we ran into

  • Working with API credits but no Pro account meant certain features were limited — every prompt had to be intentional and efficient, no room for waste
  • Render's free tier spins down after inactivity — solved with a cron-job.org ping every 15 minutes
  • Getting Claude to behave distinctly across three modes while staying grounded in ALU's values required careful, iterative prompt engineering
  • Built solo, which meant every decision — architecture, design, deployment — fell on one person

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • The anti-cheating guardrails actually work — tested live, the app refuses essay requests and cites ALU's academic integrity values
  • The session persistence feels seamless — refresh mid-conversation and nothing is lost
  • The UI genuinely looks like an ALU product — brand colors, typography, and tone all deliberate
  • Shipped a full-stack, deployed, production-ready app solo under hackathon conditions with limited resources

What we learned

How much prompt design matters. The difference between a generic AI wrapper and a tool that actually serves a specific community comes entirely down to the system prompt. Working within constraints — no Pro account, limited credits — forced a level of intentionality that made the final product stronger, not weaker.

What's next for ALU Study Buddy

  • User accounts so students can save and revisit past study sessions
  • Course-specific prompt packs (Business, Computing, Global Challenges)
  • A mobile-first redesign for students on low-bandwidth connections
  • Integration with ALU's LMS so notes can be imported directly

Built With

  • anthropic-claude-api
  • fastapi
  • python
  • react
  • render
  • tailwind-css
  • vercel
  • vite
Share this project:

Updates