VerifyX

VerifyX is a multi-agent content verification system with:

• a FastAPI backend for linguistic, evidence, visual, and synthesis analysis
• a Chrome extension (React + TypeScript + Vite)
• a public landing/demo app (Next.js)

This README was rebuilt from the current codebase and validated with real test/build runs.

Project-specific docs:

• backend/README.md
• frontend/README.md
• frontend/extension/README.md
• frontend/landing/README.md

Monorepo Layout

verifyX/
├── backend/                  # FastAPI + ML services
│   ├── app/main.py           # API app + routes + CORS + health/warmup
│   ├── app/routes/           # /linguistic /evidence /visual /synthesize
│   ├── app/services/         # core agent logic
│   └── tests/                # backend tests (security + SVG + debug)
├── frontend/
│   ├── extension/            # Chrome extension (MV3, Vite)
│   └── landing/              # Next.js landing/demo app
└── README.md

Verification Status

Validated on 2026-04-09 (Windows):

1. Backend tests: 12 passed.
2. Extension build: npm run build successful.
3. Landing build: npm run build successful.

During verification, a backend bug in SVG image handling was fixed:

• backend/app/services/visual_service.py: corrected lazy PIL usage (PILImage reference in SVG decode path).

Architecture

Backend Agents

1. linguistic:
   • Zero-shot manipulation/tone classification + sentiment fallback.
2. evidence:
   • Google Fact Check API when available.
   • Fallback pipeline: Serper search -> FAISS retrieval -> cross-encoder rerank -> stance + source credibility.
3. visual:
   • CLIP similarity for text-image consistency.
   • Supports base64, URLs, and SVG rasterization with safe XML parsing (defusedxml).
4. synthesize:
   • Weighted final verdict from other agent outputs.

Request Flow

User input (text + optional images)
  -> linguistic/evidence/visual in parallel
  -> synthesize final verdict
  -> result rendered in extension or landing UI

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+ (3.12 used in current backend venv)
• Node.js 18+
• npm
• Chrome/Chromium (for extension testing)

Quick Start

1. Backend Setup

cd backend
python -m venv myenv
myenv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Create backend/.env from backend/.env.example and set:

FACT_CHECK_API_KEY=...
SERPER_API_KEY=...
ENABLE_TRANSFORMERS=true
ENABLE_TORCH=true
CORS_ORIGINS=*
MAX_TEXT_LENGTH=10000
MAX_IMAGES=10
CACHE_DIR=~/.cache/verifyx

Run API locally:

cd backend
myenv\Scripts\python.exe -m uvicorn app.main:app --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000 --reload

2. Extension Setup

cd frontend/extension
npm install

Create frontend/extension/.env from .env.example:

VITE_API_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8000

Build extension:

npm run build

Load unpacked extension from frontend/extension/dist in chrome://extensions (Developer mode).

3. Landing App Setup

cd frontend/landing
npm install
npm run dev

For API target, set:

NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8000

Backend API

Base URL (local): http://127.0.0.1:8000

Health

• GET /
• GET /health
• GET /wake
• GET /warmup

Agents

• POST /linguistic
• POST /evidence
• POST /visual
• POST /synthesize

Example request payloads:

{ "text": "Scientists discovered a cure for all diseases." }

{
  "text": "This image proves the claim.",
  "images": ["data:image/png;base64,..."]
}

Useful Commands

From backend/:

myenv\Scripts\python.exe -m pytest -q

From frontend/extension/:

npm run build

From frontend/landing/:

npm run build

From frontend/:

npm run build:all

Documentation Scope

All tracked README files in this repository are now aligned to the current codebase and runtime behavior:

1. Root overview and cross-project setup (README.md)
2. Backend implementation, endpoints, env, and tests (backend/README.md)
3. Frontend workspace and integration (frontend/README.md)
4. Extension runtime and permissions (frontend/extension/README.md)
5. Landing app demo flow and deployment (frontend/landing/README.md)

Notes and Known Warnings

• Backend tests pass, but pytest emits non-blocking deprecation warnings from third-party libraries (fastapi, reportlab, faiss, etc.).
• Landing build reports a non-blocking warning about multiple lockfiles in the workspace.

Security Notes

• Do not commit .env files.
• Keep FACT_CHECK_API_KEY and SERPER_API_KEY server-side only.
• GET /debug/config is disabled in production and can require X-Internal-Token if ADMIN_TOKEN is set.
• SVG handling uses defusedxml to reject unsafe XML content.

Disclaimer

VerifyX provides AI-assisted signals, not definitive truth guarantees. Treat outputs as decision support and cross-check high-impact claims with trusted sources.