COMP 371 Final project submission (dev version 1)

COMP 371 Final project submission (dev version 1)

This is the initial developer release (v0.0.1-dev) of qrate, a local-first desktop workspace designed to help archivists catalog cultural heritage materials without the performance bottlenecks of traditional tools.

The goal was to replace the fragmented workflow of switching between Excel and file explorers with a single, high-performance environment that doesn't crash on large datasets.

What’s working in this build:

• Performance: The "Headless Document Model" (SQLite + Rust) is fully functional. You can import 1GB+ CSV files, load them instantly, and scroll through millions of rows with minimal RAM usage.
• Unified Interface: The split-pane view is active, letting you review media files and edit metadata side-by-side without context switching.
• Data Integrity: Auto-save is implemented with ACID transactions, meaning edits are persisted immediately to disk to prevent data loss.
• Archival Tools: The background thumbnail pipeline, custom spellchecker, and cell annotation system are all hooked up and running.

Foundational work (Scaffolding):

• AI Infrastructure: The Rust backend traits and provider modules (src-tauri/src/ai/) are in place, currently set up with scaffolding for Cohere and Mock providers.
• Chat Interface: The frontend routes and UI components for the AI assistant (src/routes/chat/) have been created, laying the groundwork for the future "metadata suggestion" feature.

Tech Stack: Built using Tauri v2, Svelte 5, and Rust.

See the README.md for the full architecture breakdown and setup instructions. You can test the app using sample data attached with this release.