brok 0.7.20

Branch WIN7 — Windows 7 build (Qt 5.15 / PySide2 / Python 3.8). See docs/BRANCH.md.

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Brok 🤖 — Persian-first AI desktop companion & coding agent

Brok is a small robot that lives on your desktop (frameless, always-on-top, draggable), chats with you in Persian first (English and other languages too), and can work as a permission-controlled coding agent on your projects. It is a derivative of myCat — see NOTICE and LICENSE.txt.

Status: alpha (0.2.0). Developed and tested on Linux. Windows 10+ and macOS should work but are not yet verified; Windows 7 is not supported (Qt 6). Please report problems in the issue tracker.

What it can do

• Robot avatar with 13 states (idle, listening, thinking, typing, coding, working, speaking, happy, confused, error, success, sleeping, notification), state-driven; extra avatar packs via pack.json.
• Chat with Claude, Ollama (local) or any OpenAI-compatible API; the UI shows LOCAL AI / CLOUD AI.
• Coding workspace (right-click → Coding Workspace…): file explorer, editor, AI chat, diff viewer, terminal, problems, git, project info. Select code → Explain / Find bug / Optimize / Write tests / To Flutter.
• Agent with safety rails: every tool has a risk level; edits show a diff first; delete/commit/push and risky commands always ask; dangerous commands are blocked; hard limits on steps, time, tokens and tool calls. See docs/security.md.
• Persian + RTL interface, Persian explanations with English code, learning mode, AI debugger, project health report.
• Memory you control (view/edit/delete/clear), privacy report, local-only/offline mode, plugin API.
• Everything from myCat: reminders, activity diary, focus timer, GitHub notifications, calendar, custom characters.
• Terminal agent: brok-agent ask|code|fix|debug|learn|health|doctor|privacy|memory.

Honest status: the core (providers, tools, permissions, agent loop, memory, index, avatar, workspace UI, hotkey, vision attach, assistants) is covered by automated tests that pass on Python 3.8 and 3.12 (Linux, headless), and the new modules pass mypy --strict. Not verified by the authors: real Claude/OpenAI/Ollama/GitHub calls with live keys, Windows/macOS builds, a physical display, microphone speech-to-text (only the interface + OS text-to-speech exist).

🚀 Quick start (Python ≥ 3.8)

pip install .                 # or: pip install ".[secure,calendar]"
brok                          # desktop companion
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...  # optional, for Claude  (or use Ollama: ollama pull llama3.1)
brok-agent doctor             # check providers
brok-agent --project . ask "این پروژه چه کاری انجام می‌دهد؟"

This branch uses Qt 5.15 via PySide2 5.15.2.1 / Pillow 10.4 on Python 3.8-3.10 so it runs on Windows 7 (see docs/PYTHON_COMPATIBILITY.md); 3.8 is end-of-life, but Windows 7 cannot run newer Python. More: configuration, architecture, AI, coding agent, privacy, plugins, development, troubleshooting.

🎮 Usage

brok --image path/to/char.zip (custom char), --pos X Y, --wait SECONDS, --debug. Left-drag to move, right-click for the menu. Settings live in ~/.config/brok/ (a legacy ~/.config/mycat is copied once, never deleted).

🐳 Docker

Run the cat in a container with GUI forwarding to your host's X server.

Prerequisites: Docker, and an X server on the host (Xorg on Linux, VcXsrv on Windows, XQuartz on macOS).

# Linux
xhost +local:docker
docker compose up --build

# Windows (VcXsrv running, network clients allowed)
docker compose -f docker-compose.windows.yml up

# macOS (XQuartz running, network clients allowed)
docker compose -f docker-compose.mac.yml up

🔧 Troubleshooting

Cat appears in a black box / transparency doesn't work 🫥

• On X11 transparency needs a compositor. brok falls back to clipping the window to the cat's outline when none is running, so this is rare; if you still see a box, enable display compositing (XFCE: Window Manager Tweaks → Compositor) or run a compositor such as picom.

Window doesn't stay on top / doesn't show in the taskbar 📌

• Some window managers override "always on top" - restart the desktop session or check the WM settings.

Custom char doesn't load ❌

• The ZIP must contain exactly one valid .gif. Check the path and that the file isn't corrupted.

Position not saving 💾

• Make sure ~/.config/brok/ exists and is writable; the config file is ~/.config/brok/config.ini.

Windows / launch issues 🪟

• Need Python 3.8–3.10 (python --version) for the pip install (Windows 7 tops out at 3.8), or just use the prebuilt .exe.
• From the repo you can also launch with run.bat (Windows) or run.sh (Linux/macOS).
• Verify Qt: python -c "import PySide2; print('PySide2 OK')" (this branch ships Qt 5.15; PySide6 is only an internal alias).

Permission errors 🔒

• On Linux prefer a user install over sudo (pip install --user brok).

🤝 Getting help

• Search the GitHub Issues for similar problems.
• Read CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup.
• Open a new issue with your OS, desktop environment, Python version and any terminal errors.

License & attribution

MIT License

Thank you for reading to the end! 😸🐾

Brok is based on myCat (© 2025 @yumicabrera, MIT CAT LICENSE / Meow-IT). Original Brok code © 2026 Barman. See NOTICE.