I built an AI that tells you to leave the leaves alone

Description and use

RakeLess uses Gemma 4 to analyze a yard photo, splits it into a 3×3 grid, and provides leaf‑removal recommendations, enabling quick corrections and preserving ecological benefits.

Problem

Many people rake all fallen leaves in autumn, but leaves in beds and under trees provide ecological benefits and do not need removal.

Outcome

RakeLess enables targeted leaf removal, saving effort and protecting wildlife, with instant, model‑free corrections and transparent rule sources.

Workflow

• Take a photo of the yard
• Upload photo to RakeLess
• Server normalizes image and calls Gemma 4
• Gemma labels nine patches
• Zod validates response
• Eight pure rules map labels to recommendations
• Display 3×3 grid with marks and sources
• User corrects any mislabelled patch
• Plan updates instantly
• Print plan or add yard sign

Evidence

RakeLess turns one photo of your yard into a 3×3 map. Each of the nine patches gets one of four marks:

Source

If the model gets a patch wrong, you correct it and the plan updates immediately, with no second AI call.

Source

The recorded run took 16.7 s including one retry. A second test took 13.8 s, and the live run in the demo video took 18.6 s.

Source