How It's Built
A walk through of some of the design decisions and architecture behind Be Right Back.
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Why?
Why build this?
The Problem & Vision
Why build a local-first AI persona app? The inspiration, motivation, and ethical considerations.
Data Foundation - Understanding iMessage
Deep dive into the iMessage database schema, message decoding, and snapshot strategy.
Ingestion Pipeline - From Raw to Embedded
The 5-stage pipeline that transforms raw messages into searchable vector embeddings.
Vector Search & RAG
How semantic search and retrieval-augmented generation power intelligent conversations.
Casper - The Agent System
How Casper orchestrates query planning, hybrid search, reranking, and context building to answer questions about your messages.
Training Pipeline - LoRA & MLX
Local LoRA fine-tuning on Apple Silicon using MLX for personalized language models.
Inference System - Running Models Locally
Multi-backend architecture for running fine-tuned models entirely on your Mac.
Desktop App Architecture - Tauri & React
Building a native macOS app with Rust, Tauri, and React for performance and security.
Privacy & Ethics by Design
How architectural decisions ensure your data never leaves your device.
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