Made an AI coding assistant that runs on your machine (open source)
Hey everyone,
I built something called Code Genie - basically an AI coding assistant that runs locally using Ollama instead of sending your code to the cloud.
Link: https://github.com/Sherin-SEF-AI/code-genie
Why I made this
I was working on some projects and wanted AI help with coding, but I didn't feel comfortable sending proprietary code to third-party services. Also, the subscription costs add up if you're bootstrapping.
So I thought: what if it just ran on my own machine? Your code stays private, no monthly fees, works offline.
What it does
It's pretty straightforward - you describe what you want in plain English and it helps generate code, tests, and documentation.
For example:
> create a REST API endpoint for user registration with email validation
It uses different specialized agents for different tasks (security scanning, performance checks, testing, etc.) instead of one big AI doing everything.
The open source part
I made it free and open source (MIT license). Mainly because:
- If I'm claiming "privacy-first", people should be able to verify that
- I've learned so much from open source projects, wanted to contribute back
- Honestly not sure about monetization yet, so keeping it free for now
Maybe there's a business model here eventually (managed hosting, enterprise features?), but I haven't figured that out. Right now I just want to see if people find it useful.
Current status
- Launched about 2 weeks ago
- Getting some GitHub stars and contributors
- Installation could be smoother (working on that)
- Local AI models aren't as powerful as GPT-4, but they work okay for most tasks
What I'm struggling with
A few things:
- Installation requires Python + Ollama setup, which isn't super simple
- Need 8GB+ RAM, so it won't work on all machines
- Not sure when/how to monetize without annoying people who helped build it
- Competing with Microsoft and OpenAI feels a bit crazy
Why I'm posting here
Mostly looking for feedback. Have you built something similar? What worked? What didn't?
If you've done the open-source-first approach, how did you think about monetization?
And if this sounds useful to you, I'd appreciate you checking it out. If it doesn't, I'd love to know why - that's useful feedback too.
GitHub: https://github.com/Sherin-SEF-AI/code-genie
Thanks for reading. This community has been helpful just from lurking, so figured I'd actually contribute and get some advice.
Happy to answer any questions!
