Italian American Heritage Archive
An AI-powered oral history platform built for Italian American families — turning a single recorded voice into a publishable heritage story.
Record the stories you want to keep.
Ask a relative about a person, place, or memory. A short recording gives your family something to return to.
Record a memory. Review it together. Decide what to share.
An organizer sends a recording link to a relative, who can open the question and record a response. The tool prepares a transcript and draft story. Check both against the recording before publishing.
Start a recording
Open the Admin Panel
This is the family organizer's control center. You'll see the full prompt library organized by Italian American cultural category.
Pick a Prompt
Choose any prompt from La Cucina, La Famiglia, Il Quartiere, or the other categories. Each prompt is crafted to draw out a specific memory or story.
Copy the Recording Link
The admin generates a direct URL to the elder-friendly recording interface pre-loaded with that prompt. Send this link to the person you want to interview.
Record a Story
The recording page is intentionally simple: one question, one big green button. Tap Record, tell a 30–90 second story, tap Stop, then Submit.
Process with AI
Your recording appears here. Click "Process" to run the full pipeline: Deepgram transcribes the audio, then Claude generates the magazine narrative, pull quote, themes, locations, and photo queries.
Publish & Share
Toggle the story to "Public" and it immediately appears in the Heritage Archive. Copy the share link or iframe embed code to put it anywhere.
How the archive began
Prompt Library
Claude Usage per Story
From audio to published story in 5 steps
Upload
Browser MediaRecorder API + Supabase Storage
Audio is captured in the browser via the MediaRecorder API and uploaded directly to Supabase Storage using the tus resumable upload protocol.
Transcribe
Deepgram Nova-2
The Edge Function generates a signed storage URL and sends it to Deepgram Nova-2 with smart_format and paragraphs enabled. Returns a clean, punctuated transcript.
Analyze
Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4
Claude receives the transcript and a crafted system prompt. It returns structured JSON: narrative, pull quote, themes, names, places, photo queries, and location data.
Enrich
Pexels API
Claude's three atmospheric photo queries are sent to Pexels. The first valid result for each is cached in the story_metadata row so the story page loads instantly.
Publish
Supabase PostgreSQL + Public API
The completed story is stored in story_metadata. When toggled public, it appears in the archive and is served by the stories-api Edge Function as a public JSON endpoint.
Recording with older relatives
WCAG AAA Contrast
7:1 ratio minimum throughout the recording interface
Touch Targets
Large recording controls
6th-Grade Reading Level
All copy tested for readability by non-native English speakers
Linear 6-Screen Flow
Zero navigation, no back buttons, no modal dialogs anywhere
No Red UI Elements
Aging eyes struggle with red — every alert uses amber/gold
Mobile-First
Recorded on phones, designed for thumbs not mouse clicks
Share a story
Heritage stories are shareable by URL, embeddable anywhere via iframe, and accessible as structured JSON through the public API — ready for ItalianAmericans.com to feature in newsletters, social posts, and the website.
Public URL
Shareable link for every story
iFrame Embed
Drop any story into any website
JSON API
/functions/v1/stories-api
Social Ready
Heritage Card image via Edge Function
What it's built on
React 18, Vite, Tailwind CSS, React Router v6, Lucide Icons
Supabase PostgreSQL, Row Level Security, Supabase Storage, Edge Functions (Deno)
Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4, Deepgram Nova-2, Custom prompt engineering
Pexels API (photography), Google Maps Embed API, tus resumable upload, Browser MediaRecorder API
Bolt.new, Claude Sonnet 4.6 (agent), Pi Day — started in one day
Built by The Alghini Institute · Contact: Christopher Alghini — salve@italianamericans.com
Become an Organizer
Create a free account and start preserving your family's stories today. As an organizer you get full access to every feature — recording links, AI processing, and the Heritage Archive.
In return, we ask for one thing: tell us what's broken, what's confusing, and what you'd love to see. Your feedback directly shapes the roadmap.