rambl

Inspiration

Sometimes we are too emotionally overwhelmed to think logically, a state often called "emotional hijacking." In these moments, we aren't looking for a "fix", we just need a safe space to unload. However, friends aren't always available at 3 AM. We built rambl to be that judgment-free bridge between emotional overwhelm and actionable recovery.

What it does

rambl is a high-empathy support application designed to de-escalate "crash outs" through a three-step process:

The Vent – A total catharsis mode where the AI acts as an active listener, providing a space for users to talk or type without interruption.
The Empathy – Utilizing reflective listening to validate the user's feelings and lower their heart rate before jumping into "fix-it" mode.
The Game Plan – Once the user is ready, the AI distills the messy vent into a structured plan, possibly including a conversation script for conflict resolution, and small, doable daily tasks.

How we built it

We leaned into a "soft-play" aesthetic to ensure the UI felt non-threatening and comfy.

The Brain: We used Google Gemini for its large context window, allowing it to sift through long, repetitive vents to extract root causes and emotional intensity scores.
The Voice: ElevenLabs provided the human-like, calm cadence needed to co-regulate the user's emotions during voice sessions.
The Backbone: Supabase handles our relational database, managing a many-to-many schema that links Vent sessions to recurring emotional themes like Work or Sleep.
The Frontend: Built with Next.js and Tailwind CSS to ensure a seamless and enjoyable user experience.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest hurdles was Context Distillation. It’s hard to turn a 10-minute raw emotional rant into a 3-bullet-point action plan without losing the user's "truth." We had to iterate heavily on our prompt engineering to ensure the AI felt empathetic rather than patronizing.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The Transition Logic: We are proud of our "Validation-to-Action" flow. Creating a UI that respects the user's emotional state by only offering solutions when they click a button was a major UX win.
The Script Generator: Successfully building a feature that translates a messy, angry rant into a structured, non-violent communication script that users can actually use in real life.
The Aesthetic: Nailing the "Bloopy" mascot vibe that makes a mental health app feel like a friend rather than a clinical tool.

What we learned

Beyond the technical stack, we learned that the real project is the friends we made along the way. We discovered that building something we are truly passionate about makes late-night debugging sessions feel like fun rather than work. Additionally, by building around our own stories and experiences, we knew how to elevate our idea to the next level.

What's next for rambl

The foundation is set for Inner Circles, allowing users to share AI-generated summaries with trusted friends via our Supabase backend. We are also looking into Multimodal Vents, where users can upload screenshots of text arguments for the AI to analyze as part of the context. Finally, we plan to introduce more diverse AI personalities so users can choose the vibe that calms them down best as well as customize the voice that their AI uses.