AI Chatbot

The goal of this project was to build a chatbot that could be accessed from the terminal. It uses Google Gemini's API for accessing the Gemini models.

Preview

$ python3 <project_root>/main.py 
Welcome to the AI Chatbot (powered by Gemini)!

Start by entering a prompt.
(For quitting the application, type "quit".)
(For clearing the screen, type "clear".)

You: Top 3 highest mountains in the world.
Chatbot:
Here are the top 3 highest mountains in the world:

 1 Mount Everest
    • Height: 8,848.86 meters (29,031.7 feet)
    • Location: Border of Nepal and China (Tibet Autonomous Region) in the Himalayan range.
 2 K2 (Mount Godwin Austen)
    • Height: 8,611 meters (28,251 feet)
    • Location: Border of Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan) and China (Xinjiang) in the Karakoram range.
 3 Kangchenjunga
    • Height: 8,586 meters (28,169 feet)
    • Location: Border of Nepal and India (Sikkim) in the Himalayan range.
You: quit

Thank you for using the AI Chatbot. Until next time!

Requirements

• Python 3.12.9
• google-genai 1.28.0
• python-dotenv 1.1.0
• rich 14.1.0

Setup

The following instructions assume the user has Ubuntu as their local machine's OS. Most instructions should work for other Linux distributions as well, though mileage may vary.

Step 1: Install Python3

Set up Python3 (v3.12.9) on the local machine.

sudo apt update 
sudp apt install python3.12

Step 2: Clone the project

Clone this GitHub repository into the local machine.

git clone --single-branch -b main <project_repo_url> <project_root> 

Step 3: Set up a virtual environment

To resolve project dependencies, install Python3 and the required packages for this project inside a virtual environment.

cd <project_root> 
python3 -m venv .venv 
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Step 4: Obtain the API key

Create a Google account if one is not available or accessible. Then, while logged in, click the link below and then click the "Get API key" button to generate a private API key. https://aistudio.google.com/apikey

Note: DO NOT share this API key with anyone!

Step 5: Store the API key

Create a file inside the project root directory and store the private API key in the file.

touch .env 
echo "GEMINI_API_KEY=<private_api_key>" > .env

Note: The script will specifically look for the "GEMINI_API_KEY" environment variable, so make sure to write it exactly as shown above.

Step 6: Run the application

Run the application from the command-line. For quitting the application, press Ctrl+C (keyboard interrupt), or simply type "quit", "exit", or "bye" in the prompt.

Usage

cd <project_root>
python3 ./main.py

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.