Andy's Daily Factoids

AI-powered factoid generator with interactive voting: https://andys-daily-factoids.com/

A Django REST API + Next.js frontend stack on Render, using OpenRouter for generation and PostHog for analytics. See ARCHITECTURE.md for detailed design.

Features

• Fresh factoids: Generated every 30 minutes via cron or on-demand
• Interactive voting: 🤯 or 😒 with live tallies
• Browse & shuffle: Explore the catalogue without waiting
• Model flexibility: Override generation parameters and model selection
• Metadata inspection: View model, parameters, and cost per factoid
• Analytics: End-to-end telemetry via PostHog LangChain callbacks
• Payments: Unlock additional generations via Stripe checkout

Architecture

• Backend: Django 5 + DRF API at /api/factoids/, Postgres storage, optional Redis rate limiting
• Frontend: Next.js 15 App Router with SSR and Server-Sent Events streaming
• Generation: apps/factoids/services/generator.py orchestrates OpenRouter calls with PostHog tracing
• Deployment: render.yaml provisions backend, frontend, and cron services
• Automation: Scheduled generation via factoid-generator cron job

Configuration

Backend (Django)

Copy backend/.env.example to backend/.env and configure:

• OPENROUTER_API_KEY - Required for generation
• DATABASE_URL - Postgres connection (SQLite by default locally)
• DJANGO_SECRET_KEY - Cryptographic signing key
• REDIS_URL - Optional for distributed rate limiting
• POSTHOG_PROJECT_API_KEY / POSTHOG_HOST - Optional analytics
• STRIPE_SECRET_KEY / STRIPE_PRICE_ID - Optional payments

Frontend (Next.js)

Create frontend/.env.local if needed:

• NEXT_PUBLIC_FACTOIDS_API_BASE - Backend API URL (defaults to http://localhost:8000/api/factoids)
• NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_KEY - Optional client analytics

Render manages production secrets via the dashboard and render.yaml.

Quick Start

Prerequisites: Node.js 20+, uv (Python dependency manager)

make install           # Install dependencies + pre-commit hooks
make migrate-backend   # Setup database (SQLite locally)
make run               # Start both backend (:8000) and frontend (:3000)

Common commands:

make test              # Run all tests
make lint              # Lint backend + frontend
make factoid           # Generate a factoid via CLI
make precommit         # Run pre-commit hooks manually

See the Makefile or CLAUDE.md for the full command reference.

Testing & Quality

Pre-commit hooks run automatically (Ruff, MyPy, ESLint, Prettier). Install with make precommit-install or make install.

make test              # All tests
make test-backend      # Django unit tests (pytest)
make test-integration  # Integration tests against deployed endpoints
make lint              # Lint backend + frontend

See tests/README.md for details.

Deployment

Render auto-deploys from main via render.yaml:

• Backend: Gunicorn + WhiteNoise for static assets
• Frontend: Next.js production build
• Cron: Shared codebase ensures consistent generation behavior

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For architecture details, deployment workflows, and operational guidance, see ARCHITECTURE.md.

For comprehensive LLM observability integration details (PostHog, Braintrust, LangSmith, Langfuse), see LLM_OBSERVABILITY.md.