Certo

Run coding tasks on a local model. Certo checks the work with your project's own tests, and calls in a cloud model only when the local one couldn't finish.

Local first, with a safety net. That is only safe if the check can be trusted, so Certo is the coding agent that doesn't take its own word for it: when the agent says it's done, Certo runs your real tests and build itself, with no AI involved, and ends with one verdict and an exit code a script can rely on. Certo is Italian for "sure".

pip install certo
certo init                      # pick Ollama for a local model, or a cloud provider
cd certo-workspace && certo tasks/wordle.md --project wordle

Most of the work never left the machine

In Certo's own benchmark, 9 coding tasks are graded by hidden tests the agent never sees. With a ladder of qwen3.8:27b on Ollama first and claude-haiku-5-5 second:

Seven tasks were done and verified locally, so their code and prompts stayed on the machine. The other two were tasks where the local model did no work; Certo saw that in its verdict and handed them to haiku, which solved both. The trade-off is time: a local 27B model took minutes per task where the cloud model took seconds. The money saved on nine small tasks is a few cents; the point is that the cloud became the exception, not the default. Details: Escalation in 0.1.17 (haiku alone is from the 0.1.15 baseline).

One real run of the quickstart's Wordle task with --escalate and a six-model ladder (Certo 0.1.19, 2026-10-19). The local model finished it, so no cloud model was called (the folder path is shortened, and the agent's work in between is left out):

── Certo 0.1.19 ────────────────────────────────────────────
  Model    escalate: qwen3.8-27b-local → claude-haiku-5-5 → claude-sonnet-5-5 → gpt-6-luna → claude-opus-5-5 → gpt-6.1-sol
  Folder   …/projects/wordle (project wordle)
  Runs on  this computer
  Checks   on, up to 2 fix attempts
  Limits   30 min · 50 steps · $0.50
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[… 16 minutes of agent work …]
Verification: verified

Run summary:
  Total running time: 16m 00s
  Models: ollama/qwen3.8:27b
  Total tokens: 554,997 (input 536,968, of which cached 0; output 18,029)
  Total cost: $0.0000
  Rungs:
    1. qwen3.8-27b-local (ollama/qwen3.8:27b): verified, 0 fix attempts, 16m 00s, 554,997 tokens, $0.0000
  Final result from rung 1 (qwen3.8-27b-local).

Each model alone, from the 0.1.15 baseline (135 runs):

A later local run, on Certo 0.1.18, set the default local model: qwen3.8:27b passed 27 of 27, and qwen3-coder:30b, the old default, 18 of 27 (details).

In the 0.1.15 runs, Certo was fooled 3 times in 135: it said verified while the hidden tests failed, each time because the code broke a rule the task stated and the agent's own tests never tried it. Of the 54 runs that failed the hidden tests, it caught all the others. These are small tasks with few repeats, and escalation has so far been measured only after a local model did no work, not after it wrote wrong code. All the numbers and their limits: Benchmark results.

Any model, and the right one for each task

Most coding agents are built around one provider. Certo isn't tied to any: the model is one setting, and the same task runs on Ollama, Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek or any LiteLLM model. The same task, run with only that setting changed, was verified on both OpenAI and Anthropic (provider swap). Because Certo checks the result itself, it can also decide which model to use, and switch when one isn't enough:

You describe your models once, in two files: models_list.yaml (ids, ratings, task profiles, ladders) and models.yaml (the ones you enabled, with keys). Every choice is written down: MODEL_DECISIONS.md says why each model was picked, and .certo/RUNS.md which models worked on the project. Escalation is the measured one so far (above); auto-model has no benchmark yet. Guides: Escalate between models, Pick models automatically, Auto-model or escalation.

Why the verdict can be trusted

Agents say "done", and sometimes they're wrong. Two real runs from building Certo, both asking a model for a Tower of Hanoi game:

• "There are errors in the tests around sequence handling and state transitions." The truth: the file didn't even run. An IndentationError stopped every test before it started. The agent never re-ran the tests; the diagnosis was made up.
• Every unit test passed, and the game crashed the moment a user picked "solve". The agent said success, and so did pytest.

The agent's report is a claim, not evidence. Certo looks at the evidence, and its verdict is also what decides when a local model's work is good enough to keep:

With --escalate, the failing verdicts are what move a task to the next model. Eight cases, and how each one changed Certo: Why agents lie.

Quickstart

pip install certo
certo init
cd certo-workspace
certo tasks/wordle.md --project wordle

certo init asks which provider you use (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, a local Ollama, or any LiteLLM model), takes your API key at a hidden prompt, saves the settings, and makes one real call to check the model works. It also leaves two sample tasks in tasks/: a terminal Wordle in Python and a browser Asteroids game (which needs Node 18+). With a cloud model a run uses your credits, and Certo prints the cost at the end. The generated project lands in projects/wordle.

Local first, cloud when needed

To start every task on a local model and move to a cloud one only when Certo's verdict says the local model couldn't finish, add --escalate:

certo "Add a --verbose flag, with a test" --escalate

Escalation reads two model files. The first time, Certo prints the cp commands that copy the examples it ships:

• models_list.yaml, the catalog: every model's id and ratings, and your ladders.
• models.yaml, your settings: the models you enabled, with their key or server address.

A ladder is a list of models, cheapest first:

# models_list.yaml
escalation:
  ladders:
    default:
      - model: qwen3.8-27b-local
        retries: 1          # one fix attempt locally, then hand over
      - model: claude-haiku-5-5

How Certo decides to climb, and how to measure it on your own models: Escalate between models.

Or work on one project at a time, new or existing:

cd any-project && certo "Add a --verbose flag, with a test"

This works in any folder when certo init saved your settings for "all projects on this computer", its default. Before the agent edits a folder that already has files, Certo prints a one-line warning if it has uncommitted git changes, or isn't a git repository. certo check shows where each setting comes from and re-runs the model check.

Already have a project? Check it with no agent and no model, for free:

certo verify ./my-project

Without certo init

Set two variables instead, in your shell, in a .env in the folder you run certo from, or in ~/.config/certo/.env for every folder (details):

export CERTO_LLM_MODEL=anthropic/claude-sonnet-5-5   # or openai/..., gemini/..., deepseek/...
export CERTO_LLM_API_KEY=sk-...

certo "Build a CLI todo app in Python, with tests" --project todo

With a local model (no API key):

ollama pull qwen3.8:27b
export CERTO_LLM_MODEL=ollama/qwen3.8:27b
export CERTO_LLM_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434

qwen3.8:27b passed all 27 runs of Certo's local benchmark and needs roughly 20 GB of GPU or unified memory. With less, try a smaller coder model such as qwen2.5-coder:7b (CERTO_LLM_MODEL=ollama/qwen2.5-coder:7b); Certo hasn't benchmarked it, so expect weaker results on multi-step tasks.

What the verdict means

The last line of every run is the verdict:

The exit code is nonzero for every failure state, so Certo works in scripts and CI. Add --require-verification to make inconclusive and unchanged fail too. Every state and its exit code: Verdicts. What to do next, verdict by verdict: After the verdict.

Features

Checks you can trust

• Independent verification. Re-runs the project's real test, build, lint and typecheck commands after the agent finishes. It never invents a command the project doesn't configure.
• Works across languages. Detects and verifies Python, Node/JS/TS, Go, Rust and Java (Maven/Gradle) projects. Each Python project gets its own virtual environment, used by both the agent and the checks.
• Verify without an agent. certo verify [PATH] runs the same checks on any project, with no model needed.
• Hard limits. An iteration cap, a wall-clock budget across all retries, and an optional approve-every-action mode.

Local first, any model

• Escalates only when it must. Give Certo a ladder of models, local first. Each task starts on the first, and moves to a stronger model only when verification shows the cheaper one couldn't finish. Add --escalate. See Escalate between models.
• Any model, one setting. Ollama, Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek or Moonshot. Switching is one environment variable.
• Picks the best model per task. Rate your models in models_list.yaml, enable the ones you have keys for in models.yaml, and Certo routes each task to the best fit, with fallback when a provider fails. No extra LLM call to decide. Add --auto-model.
• A benchmark. certo bench compares models and strategies on tasks graded by hidden tests, and counts how often Certo itself was fooled. See Benchmark models and strategies.

Fits how you work

• Resume. certo --resume "hint" continues a run with its earlier conversation, or with a stronger --model.
• Run records. Full transcript, token counts and cost per run, plus a log of which model was picked and why.
• Sandboxed runs (experimental). Add --execution docker to run the agent in a container.
• Server mode. REST and WebSocket streaming. The OpenAI-compatible /v1/chat/completions endpoint and the SQL and Redis task stores are experimental.
• Skills and custom tools. Add project conventions or new tools by dropping files in a folder. Installing third-party skills is experimental.

More ways to run it

# Work inside a sandbox
certo "Add a /version endpoint" --project my-api --execution docker

# Start on the local model, hand over to the cloud only if it can't finish
certo "Fix the failing test in payments.py" --project my-api --escalate

# Let Certo choose the model for the task
certo "Fix the failing test in payments.py" --project my-api --auto-model

# Take the task from a file or URL
certo ./tasks/spec.md --project my-api

# Pause and ask you questions instead of guessing
certo "Scaffold a FastAPI service" --project my-api --interactive

# Check a project with Certo's verification only: no agent, no model
certo verify ./projects/my-api

How it works

Certo is built on the OpenHands Software Agent SDK, which runs the agent loop and tools. Certo adds the parts the SDK leaves open: what counts as verified, which model runs and when to fall back, the budgets, and the CLI and server you talk to. The details: How verification works.

Known limits

• Server mode has no authentication. Run it on localhost or behind your own gateway.
• Java projects are detected, but verification needs Maven or Gradle installed.
• Docker execution, the OpenAI-compatible endpoint, the SQL and Redis task stores and third-party skills are experimental: tested, not yet proven in real use. Under Docker, automatic model selection makes the initial pick but does not fall back mid-task.
• Some local models, on some Ollama setups, write their tool calls as plain text and end the run with no work done. certo check tests for it; with --escalate, such a task goes to the next model. Which models worked in Certo's benchmark: Choose a local model.
• verified proves what the project's tests test, and nothing more. Read the tests: Write a task Certo can check.

The full list is in the documentation.

Documentation

• Documentation home: guides, reference and concepts, organised by what you want to do
• Getting started: install, certo init, your first task, and reading the verdict
• Write a task Certo can check: the habits that turn a vague request into a verified result
• Troubleshooting: the problems people actually hit, with their fix
• Why agents lie: the real cases of agents claiming "done", and how Certo catches each one
• ROADMAP.md: where Certo is going; TODO.md: what's left to do

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Issues labelled good first issue are a good place to start, and so is adding a benchmark task. To work on the code:

git clone https://github.com/alessioricco/certo.git
cd certo
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
uv run pytest -q     # no API key needed

License

MIT. Built by Alessio Ricco.