Won 2nd Best AI for Decision Support, recognized by Conway
Your financial starship bridge, commanded by AI.
Captain Nova leads a crew of 7 specialized AI agents, each targeting a specific financial threat: fraud detection, debt spirals, budget overruns, wasteful subscriptions, missed rewards, and more. Threats appear as space hazards on your bridge — and Visa Transaction Controls let you deploy shields instantly.
Built for TartanHacks 2026
Traditional finance apps show spreadsheets and pie charts. Users still:
- Miss the $49/mo gym membership they haven't used in 47 days
- Watch dining spending creep to 142% of budget unnoticed
- Lose $500+/year using the wrong credit card for rewards
- React to fraud after the damage is done
Ark takes a gamified approach. Instead of passive dashboards, you command a starship bridge where financial threats are visualized as space hazards — with AI-powered analysis that tells you exactly what's wrong, why, and what to do about it.
Financial threats materialize as space hazards on your bridge viewport:
| Threat | Visual | Detects |
|---|---|---|
| ☄️ Asteroid | Tumbling rock debris | Unused subscriptions, missed card rewards |
| ⚡ Ion Storm | Crackling energy storm | Budget category overruns |
| 🌞 Solar Flare | Expanding plasma burst | Auto-renewing charges approaching |
| 🕳️ Black Hole | Gravitational vortex | Debt spirals, compounding interest |
| 🌀 Wormhole | Shimmering portal | Missed savings opportunities |
| 🚀 Enemy Cruiser | Hostile vessel | Fraud alerts, suspicious transactions |
Each threat displays real dollar amounts and specific merchant names — never vague warnings.
- Next.js 16 + React 19 — App Router, TypeScript strict mode
- React Three Fiber + Three.js — Real-time 3D threat visualization
- TailwindCSS 4 — Styling
- Zustand — State management
- GSAP — Animations
- Python 3.12 — Lambda handlers with AWS Powertools
- Pydantic AI — Type-safe AI agent framework
- Claude Haiku 3.5 via AWS Bedrock — Fast AI analysis
- DynamoDB — Single-table design with composite keys
- AWS CDK v2 — Infrastructure as code
- API Gateway + Cognito — Secure REST API
- AWS Amplify — Hosting
- Capital One Nessie API — Banking data sandbox
- Visa Transaction Controls — Spending shields
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ FRONTEND (Next.js 16) │
│ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ 3D Bridge │ │ HUD + │ │ Captain Nova Panel │ │
│ │ Viewport │ │ Console │ │ (Chat Interface) │ │
│ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────┘ │
└────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┘
│ REST API
┌────────────────────────────▼────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ AWS API GATEWAY + COGNITO │
└───────┬─────────────────────┬─────────────────────┬─────────────────┘
│ │ │
▼ ▼ ▼
┌───────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
│ data-lambda │ │ captain-lambda │ │ visa-lambda │
│ (Nessie API) │ │ (AI Analysis) │ │ (Card Controls) │
└───────────────┘ └────────┬────────┘ └─────────────────┘
│
┌──────────────▼──────────────┐
│ CAPTAIN NOVA │
│ Multi-Agent Orchestrator │
└──────────────┬──────────────┘
│ dispatches to
┌────────┬───────┬───┴───┬───────┬────────┬────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
┌───────┐┌───────┐┌───────┐┌───────┐┌───────┐┌───────┐┌───────┐
│Fraud ││Debt ││Budget ││Wasted ││Missed ││Bills ││Finance│
│Detect ││Spirals││Overrun││Subscr.││Rewards││Due ││Meaning│
└───────┘└───────┘└───────┘└───────┘└───────┘└───────┘└───────┘
7 Specialist Agents (Claude Haiku 3.5)
| Agent | Analyzes |
|---|---|
| Fraud Detection | Suspicious transactions, unusual merchants |
| Debt Spirals | Compounding interest, minimum payment traps |
| Budget Overruns | Category spending vs. 50/30/20 targets |
| Wasteful Subscriptions | Unused services, duplicate charges |
| Missed Rewards | Suboptimal card routing, lost cashback |
| Upcoming Bills | Auto-renewals, payment due dates |
| Financial Meaning | Plain-English summary of your situation |