Legal Saathi (लीगल साथी) - AI Legal Aid Assistant

Legal Saathi is a comprehensive, AI-powered legal aid platform designed to provide accessible legal guidance to Indian citizens. Built with Next.js 16 and React 19, it leverages RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) with real Indian legal statutes to deliver accurate, cited legal information in 10 Indian languages.

🚀 Key Features

• Multilingual Support: Full support for 10 languages: English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Punjabi.
• AI-Powered Legal Guidance: Uses Google Gemini (2.5 Flash) + Pinecone Vector DB to answer queries with citations from real acts (RTI, IPC, CrPC, Consumer Protection, etc.).
• Real Legal Citations: Every response includes specific sections and acts (e.g., "Section 154 of CrPC") with relevance scores.
• Voice Input: Integrated voice recognition (Web Speech API) for accessibility.
• Smart Classification: Automatically detects legal domains (Tenancy, Police/FIR, Consumer, Workplace, etc.) and intent.
• Confidence Scoring: Visual confidence meter (High/Medium/Low) with automatic escalation for low-confidence queries.
• Admin Dashboard: Analytics dashboard for tracking query stats, escalated cases, and domain distribution.
• Secure Authentication: User management via Clerk (Email/Password + Google OAuth).

🛠️ Tech Stack

Core

• Framework: Next.js 16.1.6 (App Router)
• Language: TypeScript 5.7+
• Styling: Tailwind CSS v4, shadcn/ui, Radix UI, Lucide React
• Animations: Framer Motion

AI & Data

• LLM: Google Gemini 2.5 Flash
• Embeddings: Gemini Embedding 001
• Vector DB: Pinecone (Serverless)
• Fallback: OpenAI GPT-4o-mini & TF-IDF (offline fallback)

Services

• Auth: Clerk
• Analytics: Vercel Analytics
• Notifications: Sonner

📦 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm / yarn / pnpm
• API Keys for:
  • Google AI Studio (Gemini)
  • Pinecone
  • Clerk
  • (Optional) OpenAI

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/legal-saathi.git
   cd legal-saathi

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   # or
   pnpm install

3. Set up environment variables: Create a .env.local file in the root directory and add the following:

   # Clerk Authentication
   NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=pk_test_...
   CLERK_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_...
   NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_IN_URL=/sign-in
   NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_UP_URL=/sign-up
   
   # AI Services
   GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY=your_gemini_api_key
   PINECONE_API_KEY=your_pinecone_api_key
   PINECONE_INDEX=legal-saathi
   
   # Optional
   OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

4. Initialize Vector Database: The application will automatically attempt to initialize the Pinecone index with the legal documents from lib/legal-documents.ts upon the first query if the index is empty. Ensure your Pinecone index is created with 1024 dimensions and cosine metric.

5. Run the development server:

   npm run dev

   Open http://localhost:3000 with your browser to see the result.

📂 Project Structure

├── app/
│   ├── ask/                 # Main legal query interface
│   ├── dashboard/           # Admin analytics dashboard (Protected)
│   ├── api/                 # API Routes (Chat, Transcribe)
│   └── ...                  # Auth & Layout pages
├── components/
│   ├── ui/                  # shadcn/ui components
│   ├── statute-card.tsx     # Legal citation display
│   ├── confidence-meter.tsx # AI confidence visualization
│   └── ...                  # Custom components
├── lib/
│   ├── rag-gemini-pinecone.ts # Main RAG logic
│   ├── legal-documents.ts   # Database of Indian Acts
│   └── language-context.tsx # i18n implementation
└── public/                  # Static assets

📡 API Documentation

POST /api/chat

Main endpoint for processing legal queries.

Request:

{
  "query": "How do I file an RTI?",
  "language": "en",
  "include_audit_log": true
}

Response: Returns a LegalResponse object containing:

• Translated query
• Legal domain classification
• Confidence score
• List of cited sections (Act, Section, Relevance)
• Action steps & Deadlines

⚖️ Legal Disclaimer

IMPORTANT: Legal Saathi is an AI-powered informational tool. It provides general guidance based on Indian laws but does NOT constitute professional legal advice.

The information provided may not be applicable to every specific situation. Users should always consult with a qualified advocate or visit their nearest Legal Aid Clinic for professional advice.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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