GPT-Engineer

GPT-engineer lets you:

• Specify a software in natural language
• Sit back and watch as an AI writes and executes the code
• Ask the AI to implement improvements

Getting Started

Install gpt-engineer

For stable release:

• python -m pip install gpt-engineer

For development:

• git clone https://github.com/gpt-engineer-org/gpt-engineer.git
• cd gpt-engineer
• poetry install
• poetry shell to activate the virtual environment

We actively support Python 3.10 - 3.11. The last version to support python 3.8 - 3.9 was 0.2.6.

Setup API Key

Choose one of:

• Export env variable (you can add this to .bashrc so that you don't have to do it each time you start the terminal)
  • export OPENAI_API_KEY=[your api key]
• .env file:
  • Create a copy of .env.template named .env
  • Add your OPENAI_API_KEY in .env
• Custom model:
  • See docs, supports local model, azure, etc.

Check the Windows README for windows usage.

Other ways to run:

• Use Docker (instructions)
• Do everything in your browser:

Creating new code (default usage)

• Create an empty folder for your project anywhere on your computer
• Create a file called prompt (no extension) inside your new folder and fill it with instructions
• Run gpte <project_dir> with a relative path to your folder
  • For example: gpte projects/my-new-project from the gpt-engineer directory root with your new folder in projects/

Improving Existing Code

• Locate a folder with code which you want to improve anywhere on your computer
• Create a file called prompt (no extension) inside your new folder and fill it with instructions for how you want to improve the code
• Run gpte <project_dir> -i with a relative path to your folder
  • For example: gpte projects/my-old-project from the gpt-engineer directory root with your folder in projects/

By running gpt-engineer you agree to our terms.

Note

• To run this tool, the new command gpte is recommended for better user experience. However, the earlier default commands gpt-engineer and ge are also supported.

Relation to gptengineer.app

gptengineer.app is a commercial project for automatic generation of web-apps. It emerged from gpt-engineer and is committed to giving back to the open source community. A portion of gptengineer.app’s revenue will fund a full-time role and infrastructure for maintaining open-source tools for code generation.

Features

You can specify the "identity" of the AI agent by editing the files in the preprompts folder.

Editing the preprompts, and evolving how you write the project prompt, is how you make the agent remember things between projects.

You can also automatically copy all preprompts files into your project folder using the cli parameter --use-custom-preprompts. This way you can have custom preprompts for all of your projects without the need to edit the main files.

You can also run with open source models, like WizardCoder. See the documentation for example instructions.

Mission

The gpt-engineer community mission is to maintain tools that coding agent builders can use and facilitate collaboration in the open source community.

If you are interested in contributing to this, we are interested in having you.

If you want to see our broader ambitions, check out the roadmap, and join discord to get input on how you can contribute to it.

gpt-engineer is governed by a board of long term contributors. If you contribute routinely and have an interest in shaping the future of gpt-engineer, you will be considered for the board.

Example

reduced.mov