🤖 Gemini Chatbot

A voice-enabled AI chatbot powered by Google Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite, featuring a web interface with a visualiser orb and a Python CLI speaking assistant.

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Features

• Web UI — Chat via browser with a pulsing visualiser orb that reacts to conversation states (Idle → Listening → Thinking → Speaking)
• Python CLI — Terminal chatbot with native text-to-speech via pyttsx3
• Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite — Fast, efficient responses through the Gemini API
• Secure API key handling — Key loaded from .env, never hardcoded

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Getting Started

1. Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18+)
• Python (3.8+)
• A Gemini API key (see below)

2. Get a Gemini API Key

1. Go to Google AI Studio
2. Sign in with your Google account
3. Click "Create API Key"
4. Copy the key — you'll need it in the next step

3. Clone the Repo

git clone https://github.com/parekhrohan21/gemini_chatbot.git
cd gemini_chatbot

4. Set Up Your API Key

Create a .env file in the root of the project:

cp .env.example .env

Then open .env and replace the placeholder with your actual key:

GEMINI_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Important

Never share or commit your .env file. It is already listed in .gitignore.

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Running the Web Interface

npm install
npm start

Open your browser at http://localhost:3000.

Orb States:

State	Appearance
Idle	Pulsing blue orb
Listening	Red glow, active pulse
Thinking	Fast white spin
Speaking	Ripple effect

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Running the Python CLI Chatbot

pip install google-generativeai python-dotenv pyttsx3
python main.py

Type your message and press Enter. Say quit, exit, or bye to end the session.

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Project Structure

gemini_chatbot/
├── public/          # Frontend (HTML, JS, CSS)
├── server.js        # Express backend — handles Gemini API calls
├── main.py          # Python CLI chatbot with text-to-speech
├── .env.example     # Template for environment variables
├── .env             # Your local API key (gitignored)
└── package.json