the life you didn't quite live

Almost is a parallel-life generator. Upload your LinkedIn PDF, pick a career fork you didn't take, choose a format, and receive a fully rendered alternate-universe version of yourself — downloadable and shareable.

Built for the Replit 10 Buildathon.

→ almost-life.replit.app

Every career is a series of doors you didn't open. Almost asks: what would the other version of you look like right now? Not as a regret — as a curiosity.

1. Upload your LinkedIn PDF. The app parses titles, transitions, and moments where the road branched.
2. Fork — the AI surfaces three or four genuine choice-points in your career. You pick the one that's stayed with you.
3. Format — choose how your alternate life gets told: a LinkedIn profile, a Wikipedia stub, a museum plaque, or a tarot card.
4. Result — the other version of you, fully rendered. Download it. Share it. Leave it open in a tab for a while.

artifacts/
  almost/          # React + Vite frontend
  api-server/      # Express API server
lib/
  db/              # Drizzle schema + migrations
  integrations-openrouter-ai/  # OpenRouter client
scripts/           # Shared utility scripts

Prerequisites: Node 20+, pnpm, a PostgreSQL database, an OpenRouter API key.

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Set environment variables (see below)
cp .env.example .env

# Run migrations
pnpm --filter @workspace/db run migrate

# Start both servers
pnpm --filter @workspace/api-server run dev
pnpm --filter @workspace/almost run dev

Required environment variables:

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=     # OpenRouter API key (for AI generation)
SESSION_SECRET=         # Any random string (express-session)
DATABASE_URL=           # PostgreSQL connection string
ADMIN_PASSWORD=         # Password for /admin stats page

Optional:

DISABLE_RATE_LIMIT=true # Disables the 3 generations/IP/24hr limit in dev

• Nothing is stored. Your PDF is read once, in memory, then discarded.
• No account needed. No login, no tracking, no newsletter.
• AI via OpenRouter. Your data is subject to their standard usage policy — not used for training without consent.

• PDF parsing and career graph extraction
• AI-identified fork points with editorial framing
• Four output templates: LinkedIn profile, Wikipedia stub, museum plaque, tarot card
• Downloadable HTML output
• Demo mode (try Zelda's what-if without uploading anything)
• Rate limiting: 3 generations per IP per 24 hours in production
• Admin stats dashboard at /admin
• OG image + favicon for social sharing
• Mobile responsive

Vivid — AI product builder, 15+ years across design, technology, and data science.

• LinkedIn: vnsavitri
• GitHub: vnsavitri

"The unlived life is not a mistake. It's the other book on the shelf — same author, different ending."