BharatCode is a terminal-native AI coding agent that runs on your machine and, by default, talks to a local model instead of a cloud API. It is engineered for developers who want data residency, predictable cost in rupees, and a tool that defaults to keeping work on-device — without giving up a modern agentic coding experience.

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Why BharatCode

• Local-first by default. With nothing configured, BharatCode targets a local Ollama provider and a local model — no forced cloud sign-in. Cloud and hosted providers remain available, but they are opt-in.
• Data residency. An opt-in egress guard can block requests to endpoints outside an India allowlist, and an offline switch can lock the agent to local-only operation.
• Cost in rupees. A built-in INR cost ledger and an optional budget cap let you track and bound spend in ₹, not dollars.
• India model presets. First-class presets and declarative providers for India-hosted, open-weight friendly options (Sarvam, Krutrim) alongside local Qwen-Coder / DeepSeek via Ollama.
• Telemetry off. No product analytics phone-home; telemetry is disabled in code, not merely defaulted off.

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Install (build from source)

BharatCode is currently built from source. You need a recent Rust toolchain (rustup + cargo; the repo pins a toolchain via rust-toolchain.toml).

# from the repo root
cargo build -p bharatcode-cli --no-default-features --features portable-default

This produces the bharatcode binary:

./target/debug/bharatcode --help
./target/debug/bharatcode --version

Notes:

• The portable-default feature set is the light build: it drops heavy native in-process inference engines (llama.cpp / candle / mlx), code-mode, and the system keyring so the CLI builds quickly and runs anywhere. A plain cargo build uses the default features and pulls those engines in.
• Because BharatCode is local-first, the recommended setup is to install Ollama and pull a coding model, then run bharatcode with no provider configured — it will target your local Ollama by default.

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Quick start

# 1) (recommended) run a local model
ollama pull qwen2.5-coder       # or any coding model you prefer

# 2) start BharatCode in your project
bharatcode

# first run walks you through setup; "Local model — Ollama (Recommended)"
# is offered first, so you can stay fully on-device.

Handy commands:

bharatcode                  # interactive session in the current directory
bharatcode tui              # terminal UI (launches the ui/text artifact)
bharatcode presets          # list the India / open-weight model presets
bharatcode cost             # INR spend ledger (per session / day / month)
bharatcode git              # read-only summary of the current git repo
bharatcode recipes-library  # curated recipe templates for Indian dev workflows
bharatcode doctor           # environment + BharatCode settings summary
bharatcode configure        # providers, models, and onboarding

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Features

Everything below is actually built and wired in this repository. Features that are opt-in / default OFF are marked with the environment variable that turns them on.

Always on

• Local-first defaults — with no provider configured, BharatCode targets a local Ollama provider and a local default model; env/config/cloud still take precedence when you set them.
• apply_patch file-editing tool — a streaming patch parser/applier in the bharatcode-apply-patch crate, wired into the developer toolset as the apply_patch tool.
• INR cost ledger — per-session / day / month spend tracked and shown in ₹ via bharatcode cost, with a compact ₹ figure in the session footer. USD→INR rate is configurable with BHARATCODE_USD_INR; day/month buckets use IST.
• India model presets — declarative sarvam and krutrim providers plus a presets module / bharatcode presets listing and a "Recommended (India / open-weight)" first-run choice (local Qwen-Coder / DeepSeek via Ollama; hosted Sarvam / Krutrim / Qwen / DeepSeek).
• India recipe library — bharatcode recipes-library ships curated templates (e.g. UPI review, Aadhaar/PII + DPDP audit, GST helper, Indic localization).
• bharatcode git — a concise, read-only repo summary (branch, status, ahead/behind, recent commits).
• bharatcode doctor — environment checks plus a read-only summary of the active BharatCode settings (residency mode, budget, USD↔INR rate, offline, etc.).
• Tiranga theme — a saffron/white/green CLI palette, selectable with BHARATCODE_THEME (tiranga / bharat / india); honors NO_COLOR, and when unset the output is byte-identical to the default theme.
• Telemetry off — product analytics are disabled in code (no PostHog key, the enablement check returns false); nothing phones home.
• i18n / Hindi scaffold — a std-only locale resolver (BHARATCODE_LANG → config → LANG → en) with embedded en.json / hi.json and a tr!() helper. A starter set of high-traffic strings is translated to Hindi today; English output is unchanged. This is a scaffold, not a complete Hindi UI.

Opt-in (default OFF)

• BHARATCODE_SANDBOX — in-process Linux exec sandbox (landlock + seccomp) applied to shell commands. Modes: read-only / workspace-write (default off). Linux-only; a no-op stub elsewhere.
• BHARATCODE_EXEC_POLICY — path to a JSON allow/deny policy that gates shell commands (a hardened, clean-room exec policy).
• BHARATCODE_RESIDENCY (+ BHARATCODE_RESIDENCY_ALLOWLIST) — data-residency egress guard that can block requests to non-allowlisted (e.g. non-India) endpoints. Wired centrally so it screens every provider.
• BHARATCODE_OFFLINE — a single switch that composes local-only egress + residency + telemetry-off for an offline/no-egress posture.
• BHARATCODE_BUDGET_INR (+ BHARATCODE_BUDGET_MODE = warn default / deny) — an INR spend cap that warns near the cap and, in deny mode, refuses to start the next model turn once exceeded.
• BHARATCODE_COST_ROUTING — cost-aware routing that prefers cheaper / local models for the lead model when enabled.
• BHARATCODE_VERIFY — verify-before-done: runs your project's test/build and reports Verified / Failed / Skipped before finalizing.
• BHARATCODE_CACHE — on-disk prompt/response cache (SHA-256 keyed) wired into the streaming path; a hit short-circuits to a zero-cost stream.
• BHARATCODE_RETRY_* — retry/backoff tuning (BHARATCODE_RETRY_MAX, BHARATCODE_RETRY_BASE_MS, BHARATCODE_RETRY_MAX_MS) applied centrally so all providers honor it.
• BHARATCODE_CODEBASE_CONTEXT — a bounded, gitignore-respecting codebase scanner (RAG-lite) that builds a compact repo layout/manifest blob.
• BHARATCODE_KEYS / BHARATCODE_CLI_NEWLINE_KEY — customizable interactive keybindings (built-in defaults reproduced when unset).
• BHARATCODE_APPROVAL — approval-mode selection (chat / ask / auto / full) with a safe default when unset.

Heads-up on honesty: the i18n layer is a scaffold (starter Hindi strings only). The sandbox is Linux-only and off by default. Cost routing, prompt cache, retry, residency, offline, budget, exec-policy, verify, and codebase context are all off unless you set their environment variable. None of these change default behavior until you opt in.

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Configuration

BharatCode reads its configuration from ~/.config/bharatcode/ and from BHARATCODE_* environment variables (the env namespace was rebranded throughout). Common ones:

See the per-feature notes above for the full opt-in set.

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License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE.