DuckPilot

Overview

A browser-based analytics desk that lets you drop a CSV or Parquet file and ask questions in plain English. Non-technical users lose hours wrestling with spreadsheets and ad-hoc SQL just to answer basic data questions; DuckPilot turns that into a sentence.

Architecture & system design

React and Next.js frontend with DuckDB compiled to WebAssembly, so every query runs client-side and the rows never leave the browser. Questions route to OpenAI, Claude or Gemini with SQL fallback strategies when a query fails, and WebWorkers keep the UI responsive on large files. No backend or infrastructure at all.

Key deliverables

• Drop a CSV or Parquet file and ask questions in plain English
• DuckDB-WASM runs every query client-side; rows never leave the browser
• Routes to OpenAI, Claude or Gemini, with SQL fallback strategies when a query fails
• WebWorker support keeps large files from blocking the UI
• Generated SQL and results are shown and validated against the source data
• Multi-hour manual analysis becomes minutes, with no signup, no API key and no backend

Engineering decisions

Built with a team. The decision that shaped the product was compiling DuckDB to WebAssembly: the analysis stays entirely in the browser, which removes the backend and the privacy trade-off in one move. The generated SQL is surfaced and checked against the source data, rather than asking people to trust an answer they cannot see the working for.