ScopeGuard Local: A Local-First AI Assistant for Freelancers Fighting Scope Creep
This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle What I Built ScopeGuard Local is an open-source, local-first AI tool that helps freelancers identify potential scope creep before a small client request turns into a much larger project. Freelancers often hear r
Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle Submission 💸
This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle
ScopeGuard Local is an open-source, local-first AI tool that helps freelancers identify potential scope creep before a small client request turns into a much larger project.
Freelancers often hear requests like “Could you also add a customer dashboard?” or “Can we include subscription payments?” after a project has already been agreed upon. These requests can introduce additional work, time, and costs, but figuring out whether they fit the original agreement isn't always straightforward.
ScopeGuard Local helps freelance developers, designers, and small digital agencies compare new client requests against their project agreements.
The important part is that ScopeGuard doesn't just return an AI-generated verdict. It checks whether its evidence quotations actually appear in the submitted agreement and flags missing or invalid evidence for human review.
Who would pay for this? Freelancers, independent developers, designers, and small agencies who want to spend less time handling scope disputes and preparing change requests. The project is currently an open-source MVP, not a paid product.
ScopeGuard Local currently runs on your own machine, with a React frontend, FastAPI backend, and local inference through Ollama.
To try it, follow the setup instructions in the repository README. You'll need Python, Node.js, Ollama, and the Gemma 3 4B model.
The repository includes synthetic sample agreements and requests that you can use to explore the workflow without uploading real client contracts.
A hosted demo or video walkthrough is not currently linked here.
ScopeGuard helps freelancers compare a new client request with a project agreement, review the supporting passages, and prepare an editable change-order proposal. The current workflow uses a local FastAPI service and Ollama by default.