Ceresito — Ceres Conversational Assistant
Role: Fullstack Engineer & Product Owner · 2023 – Presente
Overview
Ceresito is the official chatbot of the Government of the City of Ceres, used by over 1,000 active citizens monthly and processing more than 20,000 queries per month. It functions as the main digital communication channel between the municipality and the community, centralizing procedures, complaints, public information and institutional campaigns. Since its launch, Ceresito became the "digital face" of the municipality, widely recognized by residents and used in multiple official initiatives.
Problem
The municipality needed to modernize its citizen service channel: in-person attention was saturated, there was no traceability of complaints, information was fragmented across departments, and there was no direct, reliable, and accessible digital channel for the entire population. Additionally, a frictionless solution was sought (no apps, no complex registrations), accessible from any phone, and with the ability to scale in volume.
Solution
I designed and developed a WhatsApp-based conversational platform that allows citizens to query information about procedures, taxes, health, education, tourism and services; create complaints and track their status in real time; receive mass alerts (weather, emergencies, public campaigns); and access official documents (e.g., PDF certificates issued automatically during mass events). In parallel, I built an internal Next.js panel so municipal departments can manage flows, complaints, content and metrics without depending on the technical team.
My Role
I was responsible for the entire product cycle: ideation with the communications department; character design, tone, identity and visual communication; backend architecture and database design; bot development, admin panel and integrations; deployment, monitoring and maintenance; AI integration in specific flows via LLMs; technical crisis management and vendor relations.
Technical Architecture
Backend: Node.js + Express + TypeScript Database: PostgreSQL + Redis (cache and queues) Infrastructure: Docker Integrations: WhatsApp Business API (Meta) Admin Panel: Next.js (internal use) AI: LangChain + OpenAI API in specific flows The system was designed from the start to support high concurrency volume and allow rapid flow changes without affecting operations.
Impact
+1,000 monthly active users +20,000 queries processed per month Main digital communication channel of the municipality Significant reduction in in-person attention Greater traceability and transparency in citizen complaints Use in public campaigns, climate emergencies and mass events During the 2023 and 2024 Women's Congress, Ceresito issued official PDF certificates directly via WhatsApp, eliminating paper printing and multiplying channel adoption.
Major Challenge
One day before the official launch, the bot was blocked by WhatsApp due to high message volume. At that time we used an unofficial provider (Baileys), which led Meta to interpret it as spam. I contacted Meta's team directly, managed case validation, submitted institutional documentation and, in less than 48 hours: we recovered the same number, obtained green verification badge, and I migrated the entire infrastructure to the official WhatsApp Business API. This involved redesigning flows, adapters and pipelines under real pressure, strengthening the architecture and teaching me to design systems prepared for provider changes and contingencies.
Current Usage
Currently used by departments such as: Communications, Public Works, Mayor's Office, Sports, Culture. And it continues to grow as the base platform for municipal digital services.
Key Learnings
- Design conversational products centered on real UX
- Backend architecture resilient to provider changes
- AI integration in real production flows
- Technical crisis management in production
- Product building in public and high social impact contexts