ahmad1284/north-star

A tool for career exploration in the context of Zanzibar and Tanzania # 🌟 North Star A tool to help **Tanzanian Form 6 graduates choose what to study** — not by telling them the answer, but by showing them the real landscape of what they qualify for, what their strengths open up, and what it would take to reach what they want. > *"Ushauri wangu kwako, kuwa ni mtu ambaye unapenda kuuliza maswali."* > — Ahmad Sadri, letter to Form 6 graduates (`inputs/letter-to-form-6-graduates.txt`) The letter is the product spec. A student is told "study X, it has jobs; avoid Y" by people who often don't know. The letter's answer is to **ask better questions and go find out**. North Star operationalises that: every answer it gives is explained, every fact is sourced, and anything it doesn't know it marks as unknown rather than inventing. --- ## What it does today A student enters their **NECTA subject combination and grades**, and optionally what kind of work draws them. They get back: | Group | Meaning | |---|---| | **For you** | Eligible, strong grade fit, in areas their combination normally leads to | | **Discoveries** | Eligible and a strong fit, but **outside** their obvious path — doors they never considered | | **Bridge** | What they're drawn to but *don't* qualify for — with exactly what's missing | | **Other eligible** | Everything else they qualify for; nothing is hidden | Each programme carries: why they qualify (rule by rule), how strongly, the institution, duration, capacity, the guidebook page it came from, and a provenance badge if the entry was machine-extracted rather than human-verified. **Knowledge base:** 362 programmes across 39 institutions (Zanzibar + mainland), from the TCU 2026/27 Bachelor's Degree Admission Guidebook. ## Run it ```bash cd backend pip install -e ".[dev]" pytest # 101 tests uvicorn northstar.api:app # 127.0.0.1 ``` - **127.0.0.1 — the tool (mobile-first, Swahili + English) - **/barua** — Ahmad Sadri's letter, the founding docu …