zueribot

# Bünzli.Space **A sovereign, open-source AI assistant for Zürich.** Swiss models, Swiss servers, Swiss law, live local data, privacy you can verify from your browser's network tab. Live at **[buenzli.space](https://buenzli.space)** — landing page + closed beta. Chat lives at `/chat/`. > Built solo by a non-engineer PM, with Claude as a pair programmer. Disclosure rather than disclaimer: the tooling is American, the product is Swiss. Inference, storage, jurisdiction, and every byte of user data stay inside `.ch`. --- ## Status — April 2026 | Area | State | |---|---| | Landing site (DE / CH-DE) | **Live** at [buenzli.space](https://buenzli.space) | | Closed beta sign-up | **Live** — email-gated, ~50 seats | | Production VPS + edge proxy | **Live** — Caddy + FastAPI + Astro on a single Infomaniak Zürich VPS | | Pod-based Docker deployment | **Live** — `bunzli-app`, `bunzli-app-iam`, `bunzli-gpu` | | Knowledge base — Phase 1 ingest | **Sealed** — 41,714 chunks across 10 categories (federal + cantonal law, city services, transport, history, culture, …) | | Knowledge base — embeddings + retrieval | **In progress** — GPU pod provisioning, EmbeddingGemma + BGE reranker + Qdrant | | Self-hosted auth (Zitadel) | **Staged** — pod ready, not yet wired into the SPA | | Orchestration v1 (Apertus voice + Mistral tools) | **Designed**, build pending GPU pod | | Public beta | **Target:** summer 2026 | Recent shipped work: see [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md). --- ## Why Four constraints shape every technical decision: 1. **Affordable.** Free during beta; modest subscription at worst long-term. Never ad-supported. 2. **Locally competent.** Trained for Swiss German, grounded in live Zürich APIs — not Switzerland-in-general. 3. **Privacy-by-default.** Swiss jurisdiction end-to-end, encrypted client-side, anonymised, no training on user data. 4. **Open.** MIT-licensed code, auditable infrastructure, zero telemetry. For every layer there was a cheaper US-hosted alternative. They were rejected on principle. --- ## Architecture Bünzli runs across **two physical machines** in Infomaniak's Zürich datacentre, organised as **pods** — one Docker Compose project per coherent slice of functionality. ``` ┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ Infomaniak VPS (buenzli.space) │ │ Infomaniak GPU instance │ │ │ │ (gpu.buenzli.space, A2) │ │ ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐ │ HTTPS │ │ │ │ bunzli-app pod │──┼─────────┼─▶ bunzli-gpu pod │ │ │ • bunzli-app-edge (Caddy/TLS) │ │ │ • bunzli-gpu-edge │ │ │ • bunzli-app-api (FastAPI) │ │ │ • bunzli-gpu-embed │ │ │ • bunzli-app-landing (Astro) │ │ │ • bunzli-gpu-rerank │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ • bunzli-gpu-qdrant │ │ │ │ • bunzli-gpu-llm (staging)│ │ ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ bunzli-app-iam pod (Zitadel SSO) │ │ └─────────────────────────────┘ │ └─────────────────────────────────────┘ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────┘ ``` Full operational write-up: [docs/infrastructure.md](docs/infrastructure.md). ### Pods | Pod | Host | Purpose | |---|---|---| | [`bunzli-app`](deploy/pods/app/) | VPS | Edge proxy + FastAPI backend + static landing site | | [`bunzli-app-iam`](deploy/pods/app-iam/) | VPS | Self-hosted Zitadel for OIDC auth | | [`bunzli-gpu`](deploy/pods/gpu/) | GPU instance | Embeddings, reranker, vector store, staging LLM | ### Stack | Layer | Choice | Rationale | |---|---|---| | Production LLM (chat voice) | Apertus 70B via Infomaniak AI Tools | Open-weight, Swiss-trained (ETH + EPFL), strong CH-DE | | Production LLM (tool use) | Mistral 7B via Infomaniak | Lower-latency, function-calling-tuned | | Staging LLM | Qwen 2.5 7B Instruct (Q4_K_M) on llama.cpp | Self-hosted on the GPU pod for free iteration | | Embeddings | EmbeddingGemma | Multilingual, fits on the A2 | | Reranker | BGE-reranker-base | Quality boost on top-k retrieval | | Vector store | Qdrant | Self-hosted, single-node | | Orchestration | Plain Python — **no LangChain** | Code-orchestrated, browser-local state, easier to reason about and ship | | Backend | FastAPI (Python 3.11) | Async, OpenAI-compatible endpoints | | Auth | Zitadel (self-hosted) | OIDC + PKCE, Swiss, open source | | Chat UI | Astro · React · assistant-ui · Vercel AI SDK | Static shell, React islands at `/chat/` | | Landing | Astro · Tailwind v4 · two locales (DE / CH-DE) | Static, SEO-friendly, cheap to host | | Edge / TLS | Caddy 2 | Auto-TLS via Let's Encrypt, minimal config | | Compute | Infomaniak Public Cloud, Zürich (dc4-a) | Ubuntu 24.04 — VPS 4 vCPU / 8 GB; GPU instance with NVIDIA A2 | | Orchestration runtime | Docker Compose | Single-host pods, reproducible, auditable | No piece of the runtime stack is physically outside Switzerland. --- ## Privacy, concretely The promise "your data stays safe" is cheap. Here's what it actually means on Bünzli: - **Client-side encryption.** Chat history is AES-256-encrypted in the browser before it touches the network. The server persists ciphertext only. - **Pseudonymous identity.** Sessions are tied to an opaque Zitadel user ID, not an email or IP in request logs. - **No cross-border egress.** Every request terminates in `.ch`. Verify it yourself — DevTools → Network tab while chatting. - **No analytics, no telemetry, no tracking pixels.** The only per-session log entry is a token count for billing reconciliation. - **No training on user data.** Ever. - **Open source.** The claim is only as good as the code backing it. Read it. Break it. Open an issue. --- ## Security posture - **Network** — Infomaniak anti-DDoS, OpenStack security groups (22/80/443 only), key-only SSH, no root login. - **Application** — JWT bearer auth on `/v1/chat/completions`, ModSecurity + OWASP CRS planned, 10 req/s rate limit on backend routes. - **Auth** — Zitadel brute-force protection, OIDC + PKCE from the SPA. - **Monitoring** — weekly OWASP ZAP baseline scan via GitHub Action. - **No CDN.** Cloudflare et al. were rejected to keep the Swiss-jurisdiction story clean. --- ## Connectors Each connector is a small Python module in `backend/connectors/` mapping a public Swiss/Zürich data source into a tool the agent can call. | Domain | Sources | |---|---| | Weather / environment | Open-Meteo, AWEL (water), Ostluft (air), Stadt Zürich (badi temps) | | Mobility | ZVV / opendata.ch (transit), Zürich Parkleitsystem | | City services | Stadt Zürich (services, stats), ERZ (waste), Statistik Stadt Zürich | | Civic / legal | Fedlex, ZMV, Swissvotes, Kapo Zürich | | Culture | OSM Overpass (POIs), Eventfrog, zuerich.com, SRF | | Knowledge | Local Qdrant vector store (federal + cantonal law, city handbooks, history) | | Web fallback | SearXNG (self-hosted, when re-enabled) | Missing a source? Open an issue or PR. --- ## Knowledge base A from-scratch rebuild of Bünzli's RAG corpus is in flight. Phase 1 (ingest, normalise, chunk) finished April 2026 with **41,714 chunks** across a 10-category taxonomy — federal/cantonal law, city services, transport, history, culture, civic life. Phase 2 (embedding + retrieval acceptance on the GPU pod) is the current sprint. Spec lives in [docs/knowledge_base.md](docs/knowledge_base.md). History sources are deliberately curated for Bünzli's *voice* (turns of phrase, local references), not as a Q&A reference — the model is meant to feel like it grew up here, not parrot Wikipedia. --- ## Roadmap Near term (next ~6 weeks): - **Retrieval online.** Embed Phase 1 chunks, stand up Qdrant + reranker on `bunzli-gpu`, pass acceptance evals. - **Orchestrator v1.** Code-orchestrated chitchat / RAG / tool-call routing — Apertus voice + Mistral tool-call, browser-local state. See [docs/orchestration_architecture.md](docs/orchestration_architecture.md). - **Self-hosted auth live.** Zitadel pod surfaced at `auth.buenzli.space`, wired into the SPA. Medium term: - **Action-taking agents.** Three first-party tools beyond Q&A: restaurant booking (Quandoo), waste-pickup scheduling (ERZ), street-defect filing (Züri-wie-neu). - **Multi-language output.** Full CH-DE / DE / EN / FR / IT via Supertext API. - **Public beta.** Summer 2026, opening with 50 seats. Longer term: - **Swiss-German fine-tune** once we have enough labelled in-domain data. Until then: glossary in the system prompt, no runtime translation. - **Native mobile** if the web app finds product-market fit. --- ## Repository layout ``` zuribot/ ├── api_server.py # FastAPI entry point (OpenAI-compatible) ├── backend/ │ ├── agent.py # Plain-Python orchestrator │ ├── tools/ # Tool definitions + dispatch │ ├── connectors/ # Zürich data source adapters │ └── models/ # Pydantic schemas ├── frontend/ │ ├── landing/ # Astro site (landing + /chat/ shell) │ └── chat/ # React + assistant-ui chat island ├── deploy/ │ └── pods/ │ ├── app/ # bunzli-app — edge + api + landing │ ├── app-iam/ # bunzli-app-iam — Zitadel │ └── gpu/ # bunzli-gpu — embed + rerank + qdrant + staging LLM ├── kb/ # Knowledge base ingest pipeline + Phase 1 output ├── docs/ # Infrastructure, KB, orchestration, staging spec ├── evals/ # Eval suites └── scripts/ # One-shot tooling (embed, audits, …) ``` --- ## Running locally ### Prerequisites - Python 3.11+, Node.js 20+, Docker - Infomaniak AI Tools API key (or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint) ### Backend ```bash python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate pip install -r requirements.txt # core pip install -r requirements-heavy.txt # torch, sentence-transformers, chromadb (only if running KB locally) cp .env.example .env # fill secrets locally; never commit python3 api_server.py ``` API listens on `:8000` (OpenAI-compatible `/v1/chat/completions`). ### Frontend ```bash cd frontend/landing && npm install && npm run dev ``` Astro serves on `:4321`. The `/chat/` route proxies to the API. ### Full pod stack (TLS + reverse proxy) ```bash docker compose -f deploy/pods/app/docker-compose.yml up -d --build ``` Caddy can't issue real Let's Encrypt certs locally — that's expected; hit `http://localhost:80`. --- ## Deployment Production pods run on an Infomaniak VPS in Zürich, managed via Docker Compose. The `bunzli-app` pod is the public-facing one. ```bash # Ship .env if it changed: scp .env bunzli@<vps>:/home/bunzli/zueribot/.env # Pull + rebuild: ssh bunzli@<vps> 'cd ~/zueribot && git pull && cd deploy/pods/app && docker compose up -d --build' # Smoke-test: curl -sS -o /dev/null -w "site: %{http_code}\n" https://buenzli.space/ curl -sS -o /dev/null -w "api: %{http_code}\n" https://buenzli.space/zuribot/health ``` Secrets live in the repo-root `.env`, never committed. See [`.env.example`](.env.example) for required keys, [docs/infrastructure.md](docs/infrastructure.md) for the full operational picture, and per-pod READMEs under [`deploy/pods/`](deploy/pods/) for pod-specific deploy notes. Pre-deploy rule: any change to a pod's compose / Caddyfile / Dockerfile / env layout must be brought up on Docker Desktop locally first. Reason: we shipped the pod restructure straight to prod once and took the site down for five minutes. --- ## Cost model - **Free tier** — casual use stays free during and after beta. - **Subscription tier** — CHF-scale monthly fee for heavy users, only if someone opts in. - **No ads. Ever.** A 70B open-weight model served per-token via Infomaniak is cheap enough that current beta usage sits comfortably inside a personal budget. Serving cost analysis: [docs/token_cost_strategy.md](docs/token_cost_strategy.md). --- ## On using AI to build it Most of Bünzli was written with Claude as a pair programmer. The tooling is Anthropic's; the product is Swiss. The inference, storage, jurisdiction, and live user data — the things that matter for the privacy claim — are Swiss-hosted end to end. --- ## Contributing PRs welcome, especially: - New connectors for public Zürich / Swiss data sources - Swiss German / Züridütsch improvements - Prompt + eval additions - Security reviews Please don't open PRs that add tracking, analytics, or cross-border data flows — they conflict with the design goals and will be closed. --- ## Contact - Product: **[buenzli.space](https://buenzli.space)** - Email: **sali@buenzli.space** ## License MIT. See [`LICENSE`](LICENSE).