Newton's Parrot

Newton's Parrot is my very first Flask-powered AI voice assistant. It uses Google Gemini to answer questions and Gemini text-to-speech to read the answers aloud in a natural voice. It has some latency issue though which I am trying to figure out! But nevertheless, it still works :)

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or newer
• A Gemini API key from Google AI Studio

Run locally

1. Clone the repository and enter the project folder:

   git clone https://github.com/suvrazastrovision/newtons_parrot.git
   cd newtons_parrot

2. Create a virtual environment:

   python -m venv .venv

3. Activate the virtual environment.

   Windows PowerShell:

   .\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

   Git Bash, macOS, or Linux:

   source .venv/Scripts/activate  # Git Bash on Windows
   # source .venv/bin/activate    # macOS or Linux

4. Install the dependencies:

   python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

5. Create a .env file in the project root, beside app.py:

   GEMINI_API_KEY=your_gemini_api_key_here

6. Start the application:

   python app.py

7. Open http://127.0.0.1:5000 in your browser.

Security

Never commit or share your .env file or Gemini API key. The included .gitignore prevents .env from being added to Git. If a key is exposed, revoke it in Google AI Studio and create a new one.

When deploying the app publicly, store GEMINI_API_KEY as a secret environment variable on the hosting platform. Public visitors can consume your Gemini quota through the deployed app, so request limits are recommended.