AskQlive
Live Q&A for multi-speaker events — one join code, real-time moderation, AI answers, and a presenter teleprompter.
Product: askqlive.com
Host control room: live question feed, stage controls, and run-of-show in one surface.
Why this exists
Live events still run Q&A on a fragile stack: Slack threads, sticky notes, random Mic-drop chaos, or tools that force every attendee to create an account before they can ask a question. Organizers lose the signal. Speakers lose confidence. Moderators drown in duplicates.
AskQlive collapses that stack into one purpose-built flow:
| Pain today | What AskQlive does |
|---|
| Audience friction (sign-up walls) | Zero-auth join with a short code / QR |
| Questions scatter across chat apps | One live feed with upvote ranking |
| Multi-speaker events have no “room” | Series + segments with speaker invites |
| Hosts can’t see what to say next | Stage queue + teleprompter for presenters |
| No post-event learning | Analytics and AI-assisted summaries |
| Ops glue across Zoom / Slido / docs | One product for join → moderate → present → measure |
Who it is for
- Conference and meetup organizers
- Enterprise town-hall / all-hands hosts
- Workshop facilitators and keynote teams
- Multi-speaker panels that need a clear run of show
What problem it solves (in detail)
- Access friction kills participation. Most tools optimize for accounts, not moments. AskQlive optimizes for seconds to first question — enter a join code and ask.
- Signal vs noise. Without ranking and moderation, the loudest chat wins. Upvotes, host approve/reject, and a curated stage queue keep the room focused.
- Multi-speaker reality. Real events are not one perpetual session. AskQlive models series → segments, with per-speaker invites, socials, and session descriptions.
- Presenter confidence. Knowing the next question under lights matters. The teleprompter surface is built for the person on stage, not the person in the ops channel.
- AI where it helps, not where it distracts. Gemini powers OCR/context, suggested answers, and post-session reports — under host control, not as a replacement for moderation.
- Operability. Docker → Artifact Registry → Cloud Run, with Secret Manager for keys and a GitHub → Cloud Build trigger so
main deploys itself.
Product at a glance
Join landing — code or QR, no account required for attendees.
Teleprompter — large, stage-readable next question for speakers.
Core capabilities
- Join & ask — short codes, share links, QR
- Live feed — upvote, pin, approve, ban as needed
- Host studio / control room — moderation + stage
- Manage Series — multi-segment run of show
- Speaker invites & profiles — socials, bios, segment topics
- Teleprompter — presenter-facing view
- Analytics — engagement during and after the session
- AI assists — document grounding, suggested answers, reports (Gemini)
Architecture
System context
flowchart LR
subgraph Clients
A[Audience browser]
H[Host / organizer]
S[Speaker teleprompter]
end
subgraph Edge
CF[askqlive.com<br/>Cloudflare DNS]
CR[Cloud Run<br/>ask-q-live]
end
subgraph Data_and_AI
FB[Firebase Auth<br/>Firestore]
GM[Gemini API]
SM[Secret Manager]
end
A --> CF --> CR
H --> CF
S --> CF
CR --> FB
CR --> GM
SM -.->|FIREBASE_API_KEY<br/>GEMINI_API_KEY| CR
Request path (runtime)
flowchart TB
Browser[Angular SPA + SSR]
Express[Express on Cloud Run]
Store[QaStore / QaRepository]
FS[(Firestore)]
Mem[(In-memory session cache)]
Gemini[Gemini AI gateway]
Browser -->|HTTP / SSR| Express
Express --> Store
Store --> FS
Store --> Mem
Express --> Gemini
Deploy pipeline
flowchart LR
GH[GitHub<br/>Yash-Kavaiya/ask-q-live] -->|push main| CB[Cloud Build]
CB -->|docker build + push| AR[Artifact Registry<br/>ask-q-live-repo]
CB -->|gcloud run deploy| CR[Cloud Run<br/>us-central1]
CR --> Dom[Custom domain<br/>askqlive.com / www]
Why this shape is useful
- Cloud Run — scale to zero between events; burst when a keynote starts
- SSR Angular — fast first paint and shareable links that resolve on the server
- Firebase — auth for organizers + durable series/session data
- Secrets outside the image — keys rotate without rebuilding
- One domain mapping — revisions change;
askqlive.com does not
Tech stack
| Layer | Choice |
|---|
| UI | Angular 21, Angular Material, Tailwind-style utility classes |
| Server | Express + Angular SSR |
| Auth / DB | Firebase Auth, Cloud Firestore |
| AI | Google Gemini (@google/genai) |
| Runtime | Docker on Google Cloud Run (us-central1) |
| CI/CD | Cloud Build (cloudbuild.yaml) on push to main |
| DNS | Cloudflare → Cloud Run domain mapping |
| Analytics | Google Analytics (G-V2Q44SS4M9), Microsoft Clarity |
GCP + Firebase project (single): gen-ai-guru-gdg-pune
Service: ask-q-live · Firestore: (default) · Auth: Firebase Auth in the same project
Quick start (local)
npm install
cp .env.example .env # set GEMINI_API_KEY and FIREBASE_API_KEY
npm run dev # http://localhost:3000
Useful scripts:
| Command | Purpose |
|---|
npm run dev | Local UI + API with HMR |
npm run build | Production client + SSR bundle |
npm test | Vitest unit tests |
npm run test:e2e | Playwright suite |
Deployment model
- Push to
main on GitHub.
- Trigger
ask-q-live-main-deploy runs cloudbuild.yaml.
- Image lands in Artifact Registry; Cloud Run rolls a new revision.
- Service URL and custom domain stay stable — no DNS change per release.
Secrets on Cloud Run:
GEMINI_API_KEY ← Secret Manager gemini-api-keyFIREBASE_API_KEY ← Secret Manager firebase-api-key
One-time GCP bootstrap (reference): setup-gcp.sh.
Repository map
src/app/ Angular UI (host studio, join, series, teleprompter, …)
src/server/ Express API, QaStore, Gemini gateway, auth helpers
src/server.ts SSR composition root + allowedHosts
cloudbuild.yaml Build → Artifact Registry → Cloud Run
Dockerfile Production image
assets/readme/ README screenshots
docs/ Specs / plans (large pitch & video trees are gitignored)
Justification summary
AskQlive is useful because it treats live Q&A as an event operations problem, not a chat widget:
- Lower the cost of asking → more real questions.
- Raise the cost of noise → moderation + ranking.
- Respect the stage → teleprompter and run-of-show.
- Respect the calendar → multi-speaker series, not a single endless room.
- Ship like a product → Cloud Run + CI/CD + custom domain, not a demo that dies after the meetup.
License / status
Private application repository. Product surface: askqlive.com.
