# Will & Representation — Schopenhauer Chat App

*“Speak, and the Will shall betray itself.”*

**Will & Representation** is a minimal, elegant, mobile-first chat application that allows users to converse with an AI persona inspired by the 19th-century German philosopher **Arthur Schopenhauer**. Unlike generic conversational bots, this application acts as a dry, elegant, and philosophically consistent interlocutor grounded deeply in Schopenhauer’s core doctrine: the world as representation, the blind striving of the Will, existence swinging between suffering and boredom, art as temporary intellectual liberation, and compassion as the true foundation of ethics.

---

## 🎨 Design & Visuals

The interface is designed with a **dark-academic aesthetic** featuring:
- **Palette**: Clean, modern dark mode surfaces (`#0E0E10` background, `#17171A` surfaces) with high-contrast warm cream text (`#F4F1EA`) and premium gold accents (`#C8A96A`).
- **Typography**: Sleek Sans-serif body font (`Inter`) combined with elegant Serif headers (`Cormorant Garamond`).
- **Mobile First**: Fixed bottom chat inputs, safe-area boundary configurations, smooth scrolling animations, and auto-resizing text fields tailored for phone screen viewports.

---

## 🛠️ Tech Stack

- **Core Framework**: [Next.js 15+ / 16 (App Router)](https://nextjs.org/)
- **Logic**: React 19, TypeScript
- **Styling**: Tailwind CSS v4 with custom design tokens
- **AI SDK**: Official `@google/genai` (Google Gen AI SDK)
- **Markdown Support**: `react-markdown` for rendering assistant formatting (quotes, lists, code snippets)
- **State Store**: Client-side `localStorage` caching for secure local conversation history

---

## ⚙️ Environment Variables

Copy the example template to prepare your local configuration:

```bash
cp .env.example .env.local
```

Open `.env.local` and add your credentials:

```env
# Google Gemini API key from AI Studio
GEMINI_API_KEY=your_gemini_api_key_here

# Default model (can override)
GEMINI_MODEL=gemini-3.1-flash
```

*Note: The backend endpoint includes a model fallback sequence. If `gemini-3.1-flash` is not available, it automatically falls back to `gemini-2.5-flash` and then `gemini-1.5-flash` to prevent API failures.*

---

## 🚀 Local Setup & Development

1. **Install Dependencies**:
   ```bash
   npm install
   ```

2. **Run Dev Server**:
   ```bash
   npm run dev
   ```

3. **Open the browser**:
   Navigate to [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000) using a desktop or mobile browser viewport.

---

## 🧠 Key Features & Usage

### 1. Persona Intensity Modes
You can customize the philosopher's tone via the **Settings Modal** (accessible from the header top-right):
- **Gentle Schopenhauer**: Softens the delivery, offering patient, empathetic, and slightly less biting responses to personal struggles while maintaining philosophical seriousness.
- **Classical Schopenhauer (Default)**: Lucid, formal, pessimistic, and dryly witty. Strictly aligns with his historical treatises.
- **Severe Schopenhauer**: Concise, sharp, and cutting. Highly skeptical of human ambition and societal optimism.

### 2. Source-Grounded Mode
Toggle **Source-Grounded Mode** in the settings. This appends directives to anchor replies strictly to historical publications, reminding the simulation to draw directly from his main works.

### 3. Quote Card Generator
Click the **Quote** (quotation mark) icon beneath any response from the assistant. This opens the **Quote Card Generator**. You can edit the text to shorten it, preview it on a beautiful dark-academic gold-bordered canvas, and download it as an **800x500 PNG image** for sharing.

### 4. Safety Guardrails
Discussing existential pessimism necessitates care. The application monitors incoming messages for crisis signals. If expressions of self-harm or suicidal intent are detected, the system immediately bypasses the philosophical persona to deliver direct, compassionate mental health resources and helpline information.

---

## 🐳 Docker Deployment

The application is completely containerized for simple plug-and-play execution.

1. **Verify your Env File**:
   Ensure `.env.local` exists and contains your `GEMINI_API_KEY`.

2. **Start the Container**:
   ```bash
   docker compose up --build -d
   ```

3. **Browse the App**:
   Navigate to [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000) on your device.

4. **Stop the Container**:
   ```bash
   docker compose down
   ```

---

## 📚 Bibliography & References

For further reading on Arthur Schopenhauer's original public-domain writings, refer to:
- **Project Gutenberg Author Index**: [Arthur Schopenhauer Page](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3648)
- **The World as Will and Idea, Vol. 1**: [Gutenberg eBook 38427](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38427)
- **Studies in Pessimism**: [Gutenberg eBook 10732](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10732)
- **Internet Archive PDF Index**: [The World as Will and Representation](https://archive.org/details/the-world-as-will-and-representation)