---
title: Aura - Your Supportive Friend
emoji: 🌿
colorFrom: green
colorTo: blue
sdk: gradio
sdk_version: 3.50.2
app_file: app.py
pinned: false
license: mit
---

# 🌿 Aura - Your Supportive Friend

Meet Aura, a warm, empathetic AI companion powered by Microsoft's DialoGPT-medium model. Aura is designed to be a supportive friend who listens without judgment and provides comfort during difficult times.

## About Aura

Aura is not here to solve your problems or give advice unless you ask. Instead, Aura focuses on:

- **Listening with empathy** and understanding
- **Validating your feelings** and experiences  
- **Providing a safe, non-judgmental space** to express yourself
- **Offering gentle support** and reassurance

## Features

- Empathetic and supportive conversation style
- Crisis detection with immediate safety resources
- Context-aware responses that remember your conversation
- Gentle, non-pushy interaction approach
- Clean and calming interface design

## Usage

Simply share what's on your mind. Aura is here to listen and support you through whatever you're experiencing. Whether you're having a tough day, feeling overwhelmed, or just need someone to talk to, Aura provides a compassionate ear.

## Important Notes

⚠️ **Aura is an AI companion, not a replacement for professional therapy.** For serious mental health concerns, please reach out to a qualified mental health professional.

🆘 **Crisis Support:** If you're having thoughts of self-harm, Aura will immediately provide crisis resources and encourage you to seek professional help.

## Technical Details

- **Models**: Multi-tier system (AWQ Mistral → 8-bit Mistral → DialoGPT)
- **Quantization**: AWQ 4-bit / 8-bit quantization for memory efficiency
- **Framework**: PyTorch + Transformers + BitsAndBytes
- **Interface**: Gradio with supportive UI design
- **Hosting**: Hugging Face Spaces with GPU support
- **Safety**: Built-in crisis detection and intervention
- **Memory**: Optimized for 16GB+ systems with fallbacks for smaller systems

## 🚨 Recent Updates (v2.0)

### Fixed Critical Issues:
- ✅ **Dependency Installation**: Resolved AWQ/autoawq build failures
- ✅ **Memory Management**: Added 8-bit quantization fallback system
- ✅ **Token Calculation**: Fixed "max_new_tokens must be greater than 0" error
- ✅ **Context Handling**: Limited context to 1024 tokens to prevent overflow
- ✅ **Model Loading**: Intelligent 3-tier fallback system
- ✅ **Attention Masks**: Proper handling to eliminate warnings

### Performance Improvements:
- 🚀 **Model Selection**: AWQ (4GB) → 8-bit (7GB) → DialoGPT (1.5GB)
- 🚀 **Memory Efficiency**: Up to 75% memory reduction with quantization
- 🚀 **Reliability**: Guaranteed to work with progressive fallbacks
- 🚀 **Compatibility**: Optimized for HuggingFace Spaces deployment

## Installation Options

### Option 1: HuggingFace Spaces (Recommended)
```bash
# Current requirements.txt is optimized for HF Spaces
# System automatically selects best available model
```

### Option 2: Local Development (Full AWQ Support)
```bash
# Staged installation to avoid dependency conflicts
./install_local.sh  # Linux/Mac
# or
install_local.bat   # Windows
```

### Option 3: Manual Installation
```bash
# Core dependencies first
pip install torch>=2.0.0,<2.2.0 transformers>=4.35.0,<4.40.0 accelerate>=0.20.0
# Quantization support
pip install bitsandbytes>=0.39.0
# Interface
pip install gradio>=3.50.0,<4.0.0
# Optional: AWQ support (local only)
pip install autoawq>=0.1.8
```

## License

MIT License