Source Pilot

A sourcing decision room: describe what you need to buy, collect supplier responses in whatever format they arrive in, normalize them into one comparable basis, and ask questions about the result.

Every number on screen is computed — the model reads documents and interprets your question, but an optimizer produces the figures, and each one traces back to a line in a source document.

What it does

Step	Screen	What happens
1	RFx Builder	A chat that turns a requirement into a structured brief. Attach a sheet or PDF and the line items are extracted and mapped to the checklist.
2	Responses	Supplier replies as Excel, PDF, Word, email or a photo of a rate card. Extraction runs only when you ask for it.
3	Review & Compare	Landed costs on one basis, with an exception inbox for everything that needs a human decision before an award.
4	Analysis Room	Ask for per-SKU winners, award splits, or a comparison between strategies. Answers come with the chart that supports them.

Run it locally

python -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
cp .env.example .env          # add your key; .env is gitignored
set -a; . ./.env; set +a
.venv/bin/python run_demo.py --port 8000

Then open http://127.0.0.1:8000.

Deploy on Railway

1. Create a project from this repository. Nixpacks detects Python from requirements.txt and .python-version; railway.json supplies the start command.

2. Set the variables under Variables:

   Variable	Value
   GOOGLE_API_KEY	your Gemini API key
   GEMINI_MODEL	gemini-3.8-flash (optional)
   AERCHAIN_DATA_DIR	/data — see below

3. Attach a Volume mounted at /data. Without one the container filesystem is ephemeral, so every redeploy starts from an empty event. With it, your snapshots, uploads and audit history persist.

PORT is provided by Railway; run_demo.py binds 0.0.0.0 whenever PORT is set and stays on 127.0.0.1 otherwise, so local runs are never exposed by accident.

The packaging example

demo-data/generated/ holds the worked example — a 30-line corrugated packaging event and five supplier responses, one in each format:

Supplier	Format	What it exercises
PackRight Industries	.xlsx	Clean workbook, per-piece pricing
CorrPro International	.pdf	Quotes in USD, freight stated separately
BoxWorks India	.docx	Carton pack sizes instead of pieces; three lines unquoted
AlphaPack Solutions	.jpg	A photograph of a rate card — needs the vision model
GreenCarton Co.	.eml	Prices per kilogram, buried in an email body

To walk through it: RFx Builder → use the packaging example → approve and release → Responses → Load demo messages → Extract & normalize.

Without GOOGLE_API_KEY the first, second, third and fifth extract deterministically; the photograph needs the key.

Tests

.venv/bin/python -m pytest tests -q

145 tests, covering document intake, currency and pack-size normalization, freight apportionment, the award optimizer, the knowledge graph, and the type scale.