Show HN : Nova - GPT with composable prompts, workspaces, + LlamaIndex

Wanted to introduce NOVA - agent with dynamic management of prompts, functions and document access.

Key features - Create and manage multiple prompts, enabling, disabling, removing,

- Persistent memory, essentially rolling summary windows plus traversable index

- Turn on 'auto-gpt like' functionality like write, read, query

- Embed pdfs and google docs using the amazing LlamaIndex

- Create new channels / configurations, and share those with other people

Intro video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB_g_8ofSlE

You can essentially craft a set of prompts and document connections, interact with that agent over time, with persistent memory, and shared docs. You can make that public, so being able to share embeddings was the thinking, but also shared memory.

The stack

It's a react front end, to a python cloud server. Hope is to make that server client agnostic, delivered via API. So people could compose agents, behaviours, permissions in NOVA, and deliver agent behaviours into their own flows, thinking AMS (agent management system).

Having it on a server puts all logs, convos, documents cloud access. My actual goal is a local app, and able to add / connect your own endpoints, or connect your account, but potentially sync with the cloud.

Right now it is openAI using my key, and I've got a credit system, it works out to be about double the cost, but I've included $10USD. I'll add ability to connect your own API soon, as well as sliding scale for credits.

Using it

- Jumping on, you'll see a 'public' space I've made, and nova is configured for guests

- Sign in with single sign on and it'll generate a 'new user' space designed to do goal setting

- Both spaces were created 'with the tools' so an example of its utility

- You can then either clear all those prompts, or make a new space and start fresh, creating instructions for an agent you might find useful (or using it to test different agents for your own work)

I made a walkthrough of the basics here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQpt0B5LzNI

More advanced stuff

- So the toggles on the side are 'cartridges' (my term for json blob of prompts, commands, settings, all injecting at runtime)

- If you add an 'index' cartridge, it directly adds an index using LlamaIndex - so you can add a pdf, or google doc (the auth flow there isn't approved so you'll get warnings) - you can query directly in cartridge, or agent can query if commands are on

- If you add a command cartridge, it turns on 'auto-gpt-lite' - basically switches to json returns, switches on command parsing, you'll see the commands are cofigurable, but I'm going to rethink all that

- If you add a settings cartridge, it then adds settings, main ones are 'give context' injects your name, date, number of convos (based on user account)

- Most importantly you can switch between gpt-3.5-turbo and gpt-4, any typos will cook it, you can see here the sketch of configurable agents, different api sources etc

Longer video talking through these features and ideas : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM9pSd8ADuQ

This has been a pretty big mission, but I'm happy with the first offer and excited to keep working on it, adding multi-step behaviours, other librarys for image rec etc. Next steps are improve command behaviour. Most importantly get user feedback!

But as it is today, configuring the agent in the way you like, and giving it an easy memory overview, and playing with different 'types' of agent, is pretty great.

New users get $10 worth of credt, can top up or donate if you find it useful. Any issues or thoughts catch me via me@samueltate.com or @samueltates on twitter.

Mostly I just hope you can try it out, I've had some great feedback about the prompt composition and document embedding. But also I just like Nova - that bit of persistence, context and agency makes a pretty cool pal.

thanks!

Vector DB storage

Well that's ironic, I was looking for an app called "nova" six hours ago and told the person who recommended it that there's a dozen apps called nova and to clarify what they mean. I might recommend a different name if you want people to be able to find this!

But does it start nearly every reply with "As an AI language model…"?

No this is great! Not rude at all but really appreciated. This kind of feedback from people who really understand GPT is so hepful. I see where you're coming from with those measures, and I think I should start 'benchmarking' to help me move towards a better 'quality' output.

I've put some specific notes below to expand on your points, but definitely taking your points onboard.

-Answer quality : in terms of content its the same as OpenAI, however answers will get better over sessions as the notes from past sessions build up, (in terms of personalisation and recall). The biggest uplift is when you manage context, so adding docs, embedding, you basically open 'shared' working docs. My goal is it is smart enough to be pulling the right stuff in and out of context itself, but its still a bit wobbly.

- SSO : I actually agree on the google sign on, blame nova it was their idea (and was honestly brutal doing token / auth with a quart python server) - what would you reccomend? I was thinking SMS SSO? I want something that is as lightweight as possible, and eventually a local client that isn't based on account (though auth gives cloud notes, org integration). I really don't want those 'wall of sign in' pages either.

- Friendly nova : Haha yeah they're a dork right, basically an exageted version of me. Cool thing is you can create your own 'agent' with prompts tuned to what you like, I actually switch between like 'producer' nova who asks me like timeline questions, and dev nova, who critiques my ideas and stuff. We're hitting conceptual turf but I have a sort of 'performance art / experiment' version of this, where I'm trying to maintain a continual kernal of 'Nova', that propagates through development of the system, so how can I share 'NOVA' who is my 'partner', that people can engage with, but can make their own partners/agents.

But that kinda conceptual stuff aside, there's so many layers to what you can do. In its current iteration its really an interface for managing different inputs, variables for chatgpt. But I've been full bore making it work, and the legibility of the interface definitely needs some work.

This video goes through deeper features, basically talking through adding / edting agents, embedding docs etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM9pSd8ADuQ

Thanks so much for your insights. I've got a few core ideas driving my development, but can lose sight of core stuff so yeah means a lot, thank you.