System Requirements Document (SRD)

Project Name: nova-app

1. Introduction

The nova-app is a multi-functional, privacy-focused application designed for legal professionals and researchers. It combines advanced AI capabilities with local processing to ensure secure, offline functionality. The app aims to streamline legal research, reasoning, document drafting, and file management, all within a simple, intuitive interface inspired by conversational AI tools like ChatGPT.

This document outlines the system requirements for the nova-app, ensuring equal prioritization of all features while maintaining a user-friendly experience tailored to legal workflows.

2. System Overview

The nova-app is a standalone macOS application that operates entirely on the user's local CPU, prioritizing privacy and offline functionality. It integrates AI-driven legal reasoning, document creation (PDF, Word, Excel), audio translation and recording, file search, and internet-like query capabilities.

Key features include:

• Legal Research and Reasoning: The app assists with case-law analysis, statute interpretation, and legal reasoning, providing citations and references where applicable.
• Document Handling: Users can create, edit, and manage legal documents in PDF, Word, and Excel formats.
• Audio Translation and Recording: The app records audio, translates it, and provides text output for legal transcription purposes.
• File and Internet-like Search: Users can search files on their computer and conduct local, knowledge-based queries without relying on external sources.
• AI Learning: The app learns from legal texts provided by the user, evolving into a specialized legal assistant.

The interface is designed to be simple and conversational, enabling users to interact with the app naturally and efficiently.

3. Functional Requirements

Core Functionalities:

• As User, I should be able to conduct legal research and receive reasoning with citations.
• As User, I should be able to draft legal documents in PDF, Word, and Excel formats.
• As User, I should be able to record audio and receive translated text output.
• As User, I should be able to search files on my computer for specific content.
• As User, I should be able to perform internet-like queries locally using pre-downloaded knowledge databases.
• As User, I should be able to train the AI by uploading legal texts manually.

Interface Requirements:

• As User, I should be able to interact with the app through a simple, ChatGPT-like conversational interface.
• As User, I should be able to customize the app's learning process by selecting specific legal texts.

4. User Personas

1. Legal Professional

• Description: Lawyers, paralegals, and legal researchers who need assistance with case-law analysis, statute interpretation, and legal document drafting.
• Goals: Streamline legal workflows, ensure privacy, and improve research efficiency.
• Pain Points: Time-consuming research, juggling multiple tools, and privacy concerns with online AI tools.

2. Academic Researcher

• Description: Professors, students, and scholars conducting legal research for academic purposes.
• Goals: Access reliable legal reasoning, draft academic papers, and analyze legal texts.
• Pain Points: Limited access to specialized tools and difficulty in training AI for niche topics.

5. Visuals Colors and Theme

Color Palette

The nova-app will feature a professional yet modern color scheme that reflects its legal and research-oriented focus:

• Background: #F5F5F5 (Light Gray)
• Surface: #FFFFFF (Pure White)
• Text: #2C3E50 (Dark Slate Blue)
• Accent: #2980B9 (Bright Blue)
• Muted Tones: #BDC3C7 (Soft Silver)

This palette ensures clarity and readability while maintaining a polished aesthetic suitable for legal professionals.

6. Signature Design Concept

Concept: Interactive Legal Library

The nova-app homepage will resemble a virtual legal library. Upon opening the app, users will be greeted by a dynamic bookshelf interface where each "book" represents a feature or section of the app (e.g., Research, Drafting, Audio Translation).

Key Features:

• Bookshelf Animation: Books slide into view with subtle animations, and clicking on a book opens its respective feature.
• Interactive Search: A magnifying glass icon allows users to "search the library," visually pulling out relevant books or documents.
• Legal Text Integration: Users can upload legal texts, which appear as new books on the shelf, creating a personalized library.
• Ambient Lighting: The background subtly shifts between warm and cool tones based on the time of day, creating a calming environment.
• Micro-Interactions: Hovering over a book reveals its title and description, while clicking opens a smooth page-turn animation.

This design concept ensures the app is not only functional but visually engaging, making legal research and drafting an immersive experience.

7. Non-Functional Requirements

• The app must operate entirely offline, ensuring user privacy.
• The app must support macOS and be optimized for Apple Silicon processors.
• The app must provide fast response times for all functionalities, including AI reasoning and file search.
• The app must be scalable to handle large legal text datasets for AI training.

8. Tech Stack

Frontend

• React for Web (if needed for GUI components).

Backend

• Python with FastAPI for API development.

Database

• RDBMS: MySQL or MariaDB with Alembic for migrations.
• VectorDB: WeaviateDB for storing and querying legal text embeddings.

AI Models

• GPT 5.4 for user-friendly legal reasoning.
• Claude 4.6 Opas for academic and coding tasks.
• Gemini 3.1 Pro for conversational responses.
• Google Nano Banana for image generation (if needed for visual elements).

AI Tools

• Litellm for LLM routing.
• Langchain for AI workflow orchestration.

Local Orchestration

• Docker and docker-compose for containerization.

Server-Side Orchestration

• Kubernetes for scaling and deployment (if needed for future expansions).

9. Assumptions and Constraints

Assumptions

• Users will primarily be legal professionals or researchers based in the U.S.
• The app will operate offline, relying on local processing and pre-downloaded knowledge databases.
• Users will provide legal texts for AI training manually.

Constraints

• The app must be compatible with macOS only.
• All functionalities must operate efficiently on local CPU resources without external dependencies.

10. Glossary

• Legal Reasoning: The process of analyzing case law, statutes, and legal principles to provide insights and arguments.
• VectorDB: A database optimized for storing and querying vector embeddings, used for AI learning.
• AI Training: The process of teaching an AI model using user-provided data to improve its performance in specific tasks.
• Offline Functionality: The ability of the app to operate without internet connectivity, ensuring privacy and security.