| PRIVACY.md | ||
| README.md | ||
Tern
Local-first travel assistant. Flight and hotel monitoring, itinerary generation, visa research, and disruption recovery — no cloud required.
Part of the Circuit Forge LLC menagerie — AI for the tasks the system made hard on purpose.
Status: Backlog — not yet started. See the roadmap for priority order.
What it does
Tern handles travel from planning to recovery: flight and hotel monitoring, itinerary generation, visa requirement research, travel insurance comparison, and rebooking assistance when things go wrong.
The Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) makes the longest migration of any animal: roughly 44,000 miles per year, pole to pole and back, every single year. The world's most experienced traveler. It does not get confused in new airports.
Why it is hard
Travel planning fails in predictable ways:
- Price volatility: the same flight can vary three times in cost over 72 hours
- Visa requirements are country-specific, citizenship-specific, and change without notice
- Disruption recovery is time-critical: rebooking windows close fast and compensation rules are jurisdiction-specific and complex
- Travel insurance policies are dense and full of exclusions that are only visible at claim time
Core pipeline
Configure trip parameters (destination, dates, budget, constraints)
→ Monitor flights and hotels → Alert on price drops or availability changes
→ Generate itinerary → Visa and entry requirement check
→ Travel insurance comparison → Human confirms booking
→ On disruption: present rebook options and draft compensation claim
→ Track claim status
Feature areas
- Price monitoring: watch specific routes and date ranges; alert when price crosses your threshold
- Itinerary builder: structured trip plan with confirmation numbers, addresses, and local transit notes
- Visa matrix: your citizenship plus destination plus trip purpose gives you current requirements, processing times, and document checklist
- Disruption kit: flight delay or cancellation triggers a guided workflow: your rights under EU261 or DOT rules, rebook options, and a pre-drafted compensation claim letter
- Insurance comparison: policy summary in plain language with exclusion flags before you buy
- Offline mode: your itinerary and key documents are available without connectivity
Privacy · Safety · Accessibility
Privacy: Itinerary data and passport details stay local. Visa requirement lookups use jurisdiction-specific official sources without sending your personal details to third parties.
Safety: Visa and entry requirement information is sourced from official government databases and flagged with the date it was last verified. Requirements change; Plover always recommends confirming with the official embassy or consulate before travel.
Accessibility: Itineraries export to accessible formats (plain text, screen-reader-friendly HTML, iCal). Time zones are displayed in both local and home time to reduce disorientation. Large-text mode for passport and boarding pass scanning.
Tiers
| Tier | What you get |
|---|---|
| Free | Itinerary builder, visa matrix, local LLM disruption guidance, offline itinerary access |
| Paid | Real-time price monitoring and alerts, email sync for booking confirmations, compensation claim tracking, cloud sync across devices |
| Premium | Multi-traveler household support, fine-tuned disruption response model, insurance policy analysis |
Get involved
Tern is pre-development. The best thing you can do right now is open an issue with:
- A travel disruption scenario where you felt unprepared or lost time figuring out your rights
- Visa or entry requirement situations that were harder to navigate than they should have been
- Data sources (flight APIs, official visa databases) you know are reliable
- Accessibility requirements for travel tools you want included from the start
Early issues shape what gets built first. Star the repo to follow progress.
Product code
License key format: CFG-TERN-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
Tech notes
- Built on the shared circuitforge-core scaffold
- Flight data: Skyscanner API, direct airline feeds
- Visa requirements: travel.state.gov, IATA Travel Centre API, embassy feeds
- EU261 / DOT compensation calculator: jurisdiction-keyed rules engine
- Calendar integration: iCal export for full itinerary
- Data format: SQLite local store; JSON export for portability
License
Business Source License 1.1 — free for personal non-commercial self-hosting. Converts to MIT after four years. Commercial use requires a paid license.