Aardvark is a fact-checking and opinion aggregation platform designed to help users validate claims, discuss statements, and gain insights from community perspectives. With the Aardvark Chrome Extension, users can highlight and comment on text across any website. The platform's backend then uses AI to analyse and summarise the community's opinions, providing real-time insights into contested or frequently discussed statements.

1. Key Features
2. Project Structure
3. Getting Started
   • Environment Setup
   • Backend Setup
4. Usage
   • Running the Backend
   • Using the Chrome Extension
5. Contributing
6. License

• Real-Time Fact Checking: Quickly query statements using the Aardvark Chrome Extension.

• Community Commenting: Users can leave comments on any highlighted text across the web.

• AI Summaries: Summaries generated by advanced language models (Gemini and Claude) to provide quick insights into the community's opinions.

• Cross-Platform: Seamless integration with a React-based landing page, Python backend, and Chrome Extension for easy fact-checking on any site.

  

  

ichack25/
├── README.md
├── requirements.txt
├── firebase-admin.json
├── backend/
│   ├── app.py
│   ├── firestore.py
│   └── gemini_service.py
├── extension/
│   ├── manifest.json
│   ├── background.js
│   ├── contentScript.js
│   ├── comments.js
│   ├── verifier.js
│   └── icons/
├── frontend/
│   ├── public/
│   ├── src/
│   ├── package.json
│   └── README.md
└── venv/

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/aardvark.git
cd aardvark

1. Create a Virtual Environment:

python -m venv venv

2. Activate the Virtual Environment:

# Windows
venv\Scripts\activate

# macOS/Linux
source venv/bin/activate

3. Install Dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set Up Firestore:

• Ensure you have the correct Firebase credentials in your firebase-admin.json
• Follow Firebase documentation for detailed setup instructions

From the root directory:

cd backend
python app.py

The application will start running on http://localhost:5000 by default.

1. Load the Extension

   • Open Chrome and go to chrome://extensions/
   • Enable Developer Mode (toggle in top-right)
   • Click "Load unpacked" and select the extension/ folder

2. Interact with Web Pages

   • Visit any website
   • Click the Aardvark Extension icon in your toolbar
   • Highlight text to view or add comments
   • Use the AI-powered insights for fact-checking

We welcome contributions! To get started:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a new branch: git checkout -b feature-name
3. Make your changes and commit them: git commit -m 'Add some feature'
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature-name
5. Submit a pull request

Please follow our coding standards and include relevant tests where possible.

This project is licensed under the MIT License. Feel free to use and modify this project for your own purposes.

Happy Fact-Checking!

If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to open an issue or reach out to the team via Discord.