Setu: Bridge to Better

Setu (Sanskrit: सेतु, "bridge") is a website for unbiased, judgment-free counselling support. It connects you with seven specialized AI guides, each modeled with a distinct persona, counselling methodology, and area of focus, so you can talk things through with someone who can't possibly have an ulterior motive.

Setu is a static site that runs on your own AI provider API key. Your messages go straight from your browser to the model provider; there's no Setu server in the middle, and your conversations live only in your browser.

Setu's guides are AI personas, not licensed clinicians, and Setu is not a replacement for professional therapy. Every conversation has crisis support resources built in.

Features

• Landing page introducing the concept, the seven guides, and Setu's honesty policy
• Onboarding quiz (3 questions) that recommends your top 3 guides, or skip and browse
• Seven specialized guides (CBT, trauma informed care, ACT/mindfulness, behavioral activation, grief/IPT, life transitions, LGBTQ+ peer support), each with its own system prompt, voice, methodology, and referral boundaries
• Real time streaming chat with a large language model, called directly from the browser
• Bring your own key: each visitor supplies their own API key, stored only in their browser (localStorage). No accounts, no shared secret, no Setu backend
• Crisis detection: flagged messages surface a crisis resources banner, and every guide follows a crisis first protocol in its system prompt
• Dark mode, reduced motion support, mobile responsive layout

Live site

Setu is deployed and live on GitHub Pages.

Project structure

public/                 The static site (this is what GitHub Pages serves)
  index.html            Landing page
  app.html               The app: quiz, guide selection, chat
  data/personas.json    Single source of truth for persona data (guides + prompts)
  js/                     setu data.js (loader), landing.js, app.js (chat + BYOK)
  css/styles.css         Design system
  img/personas/           Guide avatars
.github/workflows/pages.yml   GitHub Pages deploy
server/                 Optional local Node server (reads public/data/personas.json)
design/                 Original design artifacts (style guide, personas spec, mockup)
personas.md             Full persona and session structure specification

Privacy model

No Setu server is involved in the deployment. The browser calls the model provider's API directly using a direct browser access header. The API key and all conversations are stored only in the visitor's browser (localStorage). "Clear all my conversations" and "Remove saved key" wipe them.

Design credits

Built from the product artifacts in this repo: personas.md (persona and session design) and design/style guide.md (visual system: pastel/creamy palette, bridge motif, WCAG 2.1 AA targets).