⚡ CarAI IDE

A self-hosted, browser-based AI coding IDE — like Cursor, but yours. Runs anywhere via Docker.

Feature Matrix

Feature	Phase
Monaco Editor (VS Code engine)	✅ 1
File tree with CRUD, rename, download	✅ 1
Resizable panels (editor / chat / terminal)	✅ 1
AI Chat sidebar with streaming	✅ 1
CMD+K inline AI edits	✅ 1
Integrated terminal (node-pty + xterm.js)	✅ 1
Live file watcher (WebSocket)	✅ 1
Inline autocomplete (FIM)	✅ 1+2
Codebase indexer (TF-IDF semantic search)	✅ 2
Multi-file context injection in chat	✅ 2
@file mentions in chat	✅ 2
Agent mode (read/write/run autonomously)	✅ 2
Command Palette (Ctrl+P)	✅ 3
Split editor view	✅ 3
Git panel (stage/commit/push/pull/diff/branch)	✅ 3
Search across files (semantic)	✅ 3
Breadcrumb navigation	✅ 3
Problems panel	✅ 4
LSP bridge (TypeScript, Python, CSS, HTML)	✅ 4
Workspace settings (persisted to .carai/)	✅ 4
Auto-save	✅ 4
Theme switching	✅ 4

AI Providers

Provider	Key Variable	Free?
🔶 Anthropic (Claude)	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	No
🔀 OpenRouter	OPENROUTER_API_KEY	Yes (many models)
🐋 DeepSeek	DEEPSEEK_API_KEY	No
💎 Google Gemini	GEMINI_API_KEY	Yes (limited)
🤗 Hugging Face	HF_API_KEY	Yes
🦙 Ollama (carai.agency)	OLLAMA_BASE_URL	Self-hosted

Quick Start

# 1. Clone / unzip
cd carai-ide

# 2. Configure
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
# Edit .env with your API keys

# 3. Launch
docker-compose up --build

# → Open http://localhost:3000

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+P	Command Palette / File Search
Ctrl+S	Save file
Ctrl+K	AI Edit (CMD+K)
Ctrl+,	Settings
`Ctrl+``	Toggle Terminal
Ctrl+Shift+L	Toggle Chat
Ctrl+Shift+G	Toggle Git Panel
Ctrl+Shift+F	Search across files
Ctrl+Shift+M	Problems panel

VPS / Production Deployment

# On your VPS, edit docker-compose.yml:
# REACT_APP_BACKEND_URL=https://api.your-domain.com

# With Caddy for SSL:
# your-domain.com { reverse_proxy localhost:3000 }
# api.your-domain.com { reverse_proxy localhost:3001 }

docker-compose up -d --build

LSP (Diagnostics & Go-to-Definition)

Language servers run inside the backend container. TypeScript/JS is installed by default.

To add Python LSP, uncomment in backend/Dockerfile:

RUN pip3 install python-lsp-server

Then rebuild: docker-compose up --build backend

Project Structure

carai-ide/
├── backend/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── index.js              # Server entry + WebSocket hub
│   │   ├── routes/
│   │   │   ├── files.js          # File CRUD
│   │   │   ├── ai.js             # Chat, complete, edit, explain
│   │   │   ├── agent.js          # Agent run + index API
│   │   │   ├── git.js            # All git operations
│   │   │   └── settings.js       # Workspace settings
│   │   └── services/
│   │       ├── aiProviders.js    # Provider config
│   │       ├── aiService.js      # Universal AI router
│   │       ├── agentService.js   # Autonomous agent loop
│   │       ├── indexer.js        # Workspace indexer
│   │       ├── vectorStore.js    # TF-IDF semantic search
│   │       ├── gitService.js     # simple-git wrapper
│   │       ├── lspService.js     # LSP server bridge
│   │       └── settingsService.js# Persistent settings
│   └── Dockerfile
├── frontend/
│   └── src/
│       ├── App.jsx               # Root layout + shortcuts
│       ├── store/useStore.js     # Zustand global state
│       ├── services/api.js       # Backend API client
│       ├── hooks/useLSP.js       # LSP WebSocket hook
│       └── components/
│           ├── editor/           # Monaco, tabs, breadcrumb,
│           │                       CMD+K, palette, problems
│           ├── sidebar/          # Chat, agent, git, search
│           ├── terminal/         # xterm.js
│           └── settings/         # Tabbed settings modal
└── docker-compose.yml