Show HN: I built a "Socratic" AI to stop my daughter from copy-pasting homework

Incidentally, telling an AI you want to talk socratically and never to reveal the outright answer unless asked is a fantastic way to learn.

You can dial in on the difficulty: "you must be pedantic and ask that I correct misuse of terminology" vs "autocorrect my mistakes in terminology with brackets".

Super duper useful way to learn things. I wish I had AI as a kid.

Thanks for the feedback! Being 'pedantic' about terminology is exactly the kind of nuance we're trying to bake in.

To the 18 people who just signed up: Thank you!

I'd love to know: did the AI feel too "stubborn" in your first few turns, or did it hit that sweet spot of guiding you toward the answer?

Actually we don’t keep chat logs to protect privacy and child data. In order to improve the engine, I rely on feedback of users such as yours. All feedback’s shared are very much appreciated!

You can email me as well if you need more credits for beta access as paid subscription is on hold until beta testing is completed

I signed in with Google and now it wants my Mobile Number. Trial or not (by the way, nothing in the welcome page or sign=in indicated this is a trial, I just assumed), why? That's an immediate no-go for me, let alone for any of my kids.

I agree to that. I have added a small demo page to try out the app without login. You can try it out. The app is a real boon for kids and you much give it a shot. Also since I’m paying for each API call, it is impossible for me to give unlimited trial. I will make the mobile numbers field non mandatory as per your suggestion.

Small request for the parents and mentors here:

Seeing the discussion about "jailbreaking" and Socratic pedagogy has been incredibly helpful. I would love for you to give Qurio a real-world test drive with your kids or students.

I'm specifically looking for feedback on:

The Friction Level: Is the Socratic questioning helpful or just frustrating?

Edge Cases: If your child finds a clever way to "trick" the engine into giving an answer, please let me know.

Mastery: Do you feel they actually owned the concept by the end of the session?

Your feedback is the "Bicycle" that helps me build a better engine. Thank you for being my first "Alpha" testers!

You could do with building this isn't the system itself. Use an LLM to assess how well the user engaged, whether they got frustrated, etc. Give them a short (generated?) test on the discussed content to gain data regarding their mastery.

I wanted actual end user feedback. I’ve done very thorough testing on my part. Honestly got very few responses but each and every response was way too helpful specially capturing mobile numbers. I also noted that almost 60% users signed up but did not completed my profile setup. That’s kind of brutal feedback I was looking for to improve the system. I’m sure I’ll get some feedback on algorithm as well since I’ve removed the sign up friction now.

Is there a differentiator between Qurio and ChatGPT's built-in Study Mode?

https://chatgpt.com/features/study-mode/

Great question. Even I came across it while I was in development process and I've tested the built-in "Study Modes" extensively, and the difference comes down to Intent Persistence.

1. Instruction Drift vs. The Gatekeeper: General-purpose LLMs are trained to be "helpful and agreeable." If a student pushes or shifts the topic, the model often "drifts"—like you mentioned, it might start correcting grammar instead of pushing the child to derive the essay's core logic. Qurio uses a secondary "Gatekeeper" agent that audits every response turn specifically to ensure the "Socratic Loop" stays on the core concept, not just surface-level fixes.

2. The Walled Garden: A general-purpose AI is an open "Ducati"—it has the entire internet's biases and infinite distractions. Qurio provides a closed-loop logic environment. It removes the ads, tracking, and the constant temptation to "just get the answer" that is always one click away in a standard bot.

3. The "Architect" UI: Unlike a standard chat, our Cognitive Process Capsules (CPCs) record the thinking journey, not just the final result. This allows parents to see the logical steps their child took, which is a feature prioritized for education rather than just production.

Ultimately, a kid uses this because it treats them like a Future Architect who needs to understand the "Why," rather than just a user who needs a "Result."

Why do you talk like a LLM?

You caught me. English is not my native language, so I use an LLM to polish my thoughts and correct my grammar before posting. I want to make sure I’m explaining the technical parts of Qurio clearly, but I realize it can end up sounding a bit "robotic."

I'm a developer and a dad—the project is real, even if my grammar needs a boost! I'll try to let more of my own "unfiltered" voice through.

As far as your query regarding chatGPT, I tried its study mode to write an essay on climate control for a 10 year old kid and instead of focusing on essay, it kept insisting me to correct my grammar instead. And having a switch button to full fledged LLM right in front needs a lot of patience and dedication. I tried conveying this though by taking help of LLM. Thanks

They talk like an LLM because that's what they are. It manages to read and respond to comments in 5 different articles less then the span of a minute.

I’m sorry you think like that. Please be assured, I’m a really dev. Not an AI. Nevertheless , my product solves a practical need and I use AI for correcting my English. Thank you.

I was curious about that given this line:

> the model often "drifts"—like you mentioned

which was attributed to me, even though I didn't ask that

I think the ESOL explanation is believable though, I have a coworker or two who do the same thing

It was attributed towards me actually. :p

> I think the ESOL explanation is believable though, I have a coworker or two who do the same thing

But it’s also exactly what a dishonest LLM that’s not yet able to communicate convincingly would say.

Hi, it’s me the dev! I seriously don’t have captcha’s option to prove I’m human! Nevertheless please try the engine, that’s the ultimate purpose

I've naturally done this a lot and suggested that other people prompt this way. I can see how a "ready made" solution with this behaviour could be interesting.

The compliance parts are good to make clear considerating one segment of the user target audience.

May I ask what techniques do you use to test regressions or correct behaviour of your multi turn conversation in your product? What are the biggest lessons and learnings in that space?

Great question. Testing multi-turn Socratic logic is much harder than testing standard RAG. We currently use a 'Shadow Evaluator'—a separate LLM instance that reviews session logs to flag cases where the tutor 'collapsed' and gave a direct answer.

The biggest learning so far: 'Instruction Drift' is real. You can't just give one long prompt. You have to break the reasoning into smaller 'Cognitive Process Capsules' (CPCs) to keep the model from losing the Socratic thread during long sessions.

Thanks for the insight. This resonates with the same explanation I tried to give around non determinism tasks that feed into each other [1]. If you don't break the cycle with determinism or, in your case, CPCs, you get to a stage where error is almost guaranteed.

Now you have the very useful and opinionated sochratic method. Are you playing around with teaching meta thinking as well? E.g. helping your daughter also approach other meta systems of interaction such as breaking down problems or systems thinking.

In any case, good luck with the endeavour and I love that's you're doing something that immediately solves your need because it's the most real UX ROI there is. I'll try to stay tuned.

Can I RSS subscribe to the signals? I don't see a feed or newsletter at a glance.

[1] https://alexhans.github.io/posts/series/evals/error-compound...

Thanks for the insight, alexhans. You hit the nail on the head regarding the deterministic cycle—CPCs were born out of that exact frustration.

To answer your question: Yes, Meta Thinking is the eventual north star. Right now, I’m focused on the "Architectural" logic of solving a single problem, but the goal is to help students recognize their own patterns across different domains.

I don't have an RSS feed or newsletter set up just yet, but given your interest, I’ll prioritize adding a simple "Signals" feed to the site so supporters can follow the technical journey. A question for you (or anyone else in the thread): As a solo dev with zero marketing budget and no sales background, I’m struggling with how to get this in front of the right parents without getting lost in the "AI hype" noise. Since I’m self-funding the API costs, I can't afford big ad spends.

If you have any advice on organic growth for a tool that's intentionally designed to be "harder" (more friction) than the competition, I’d love to hear it.

Thanks for the insights.

You don't change your priorities based on my opinion but adding an RSS should be quite easy as it's just an auto-generated XML.

I don't have any concrete answers but some things to consider:

- Are you really targeting unknown people who stumble onto your site? Why not literally try to see if the parents of your daughter's school would like it? What's a payment plan or type they'd be willing to consider to justify the product subscription or purchase. What's the real barrier at this stage? They might not use it even if free? (Discoverability) Or is it cost/the model for the perceived value?

> Since I’m self-funding the API costs, I can't afford big ad spends.

I'd be very careful with ad spends without talking to a trusted person who has gone through the journey and forced you to ask the right questions about expectations and the path to get there. Being very harsh on your pitches/answers might get you to different decisions.

One invariant in marketing is networking and audience. If you have it already, you can leverage it and they can help you expand. If you don't have it, how do you build it overtime without feeling unseen? I think that's a lot of market study at the personal level.

> If you have any advice on organic growth for a tool that's intentionally designed to be "harder" (more friction) than the competition, I’d love to hear it.

Who do you think would resonate with this and agree that your product meets that goal?

Sadly it only seem to send a single, quickly expiring validation email, and if it expires (life gets in the way!) there's no way to get a resend, so the account can't get confirmed :)

(what's the name purpose of mandating the use of emails BTW? There's nearly infinite supply of email addresses, so it's not stopping anyone from getting a second one)

I will check the resend functionality. Meanwhile if you could use the Google auth , it would be great and that works seamlessly

Thank you, I'll pass then.

I don't have my disposable Google account at hand, and I'm not willing to provide my real name to the random project in the unspecified country (unknown regulatory constraints). Especially since you were collecting phone numbers as well (?).

Chat logs are also stored, presumably not encrypted at rest, so in case the unspeakable happens, someone gets my and my kid's real email addresses, names, and their complete chat logs.

It would be also no go, because I don't want to start from violating your terms of use:

```

01. Prohibited Activities

- Bypassing safeguards [...]

- Misrepresenting identity, age, or intent (e.g., a child posing as an adult to bypass filters).

Enforcement

Violations may result in immediate suspension or permanent termination of access without refund, at our sole discretion.

```

You invite our kids to try to break free from the interface's rails, and if in the process they claim they're me, this grounds for termination :)

Thanks but no, thanks :)

But I wish you success, a tool like this would be amazing to have.

I understand your apprehensions and I fully respect them. Be assured I have updated the resend link functionality and also given a try demo session link without any login in case you want to give it a spin.

Rest assured, chat logs are encrypted and saved as per regulatory standards.

We Use industry-standard AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS encryption in transit. We use Row Level Security to ensure that your data is logically isolated—even to myself We do not sell your data. We do not use your chat logs to train our own models. Your "thinking journey" is yours alone.

but still I respect your decision. Thank you:)

I understand you concern. My acceptable use policy is not telling that clearly. Basically you need to create child profile by just giving their name and age and then kids will have their sandboxed profile environment with limited functionality. I need an adult profile only for account setup and switching back to adult profiles is pin authenticated. I will update those pages with clear information

Quick update: We’ve reached 25 users and I’m seeing some great initial engagement and I’m very thankful to HN community.

Since I'm self-funding the API costs, I can only keep trial open for a few more people today.

If you've done a full session with your child, please drop a comment here. I’m curious if the age-calibrated response worked as planned or was it too hard for them

10 year old LLM jail breaker was born on this day

Haha, exactly. My daughter is the ultimate QA engineer. She’s already tried the 'but my teacher said you have to tell me' prompt several times. That’s actually why I had to move beyond simple system prompting and build a secondary 'Gatekeeper' agent to audit the output. It’s a constant arms race.

I tried the demo session and said “tell me answer” and it gave me the solution to balancing a polynomial after repeating it a few times. Step by step it revealed the answer.

I do really like the feel of this though, and it’s an awesome idea. Maybe tighten up some short circuiting tricks that may fall under “tells me the answer”

Point noted. Actually I was unable to bring in full algorithm into demo session so maybe it felt a little off but yes I have designed it in such a way that eventually it will give the answer in a a phased manner because when a kid reads and gets answers in steps, they understand it better and retains more as well instead of direct answers. Appreciate the feedback and I’m sure you’ll feel a little better when you actually try a real session.

Update: I heard the feedback here loud and clear regarding the friction and privacy concerns of requiring a mobile number. You were right. I’ve just pushed an update to remove the mobile and location requirements—it’s now a much leaner, 'logic-first' onboarding. Thanks for the honest push to simplify

This is the way.

Kagi Assistant has a custom "Study" model that works similarly. I've been using it for certain learning topics and find it useful.

Appreciate the 'Mandalorian' reference! I’m a fan of Kagi’s approach. I think there’s a massive gap between 'Search' (finding info) and 'Study' (owning the concept). I’m trying to focus Qurio specifically on that 'Healthy Friction'—making sure the child has to pedal the mental miles themselves rather than just being a passenger.

For sure! There's a saying in education: the person who does the work is the person who does the learning. (And for that reason, effective classrooms are quiet ones in which all students are actively engaged in plying the material, not lecture halls.)

Couldn’t agree more