Cortex Linux

An AI-powered package manager that understands what you actually want to install.
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Table of Contents

1. About The Project
   • Built With
2. Getting Started
   • Prerequisites
   • Installation
3. Usage
4. Safety Features
5. Roadmap
6. Contributing
7. Bounties
8. License
9. Contact
10. Acknowledgements

About The Project

Stop memorizing package names. Just tell Cortex what you want.

$ cortex install "full ML stack for my RTX 4090"

🔍 Detected: NVIDIA RTX 4090 (24GB VRAM)
📦 Installing: CUDA 12.3, cuDNN, PyTorch 2.1, TensorFlow...
⚡ Optimized for your GPU
✅ Done in 4m 23s

Here's why Cortex exists:

• Natural language — Say "install docker" not apt install docker.io docker-compose docker-buildx
• Hardware-aware — Automatically detects your GPU, CPU, and RAM to optimize installations
• Safe by default — Every command shows a preview before execution. Nothing runs without your approval.
• Undo mistakes — Full transaction history with rollback capability

Cortex wraps apt/dpkg with an AI layer that translates intent into action, while keeping you in control.

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Built With

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Getting Started

Get Cortex running on your Debian/Ubuntu system in under 2 minutes.

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 22.04+ or Debian 11+
• Python 3.11+
• An Anthropic API key (get one here)

Installation

One-liner install (coming soon):

curl -fsSL https://cortexlinux.com/install.sh | bash

Manual install:

1. Clone the repo

   git clone https://github.com/cortexlinux/cortex.git
   cd cortex

2. Create virtual environment

   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies

   pip install -e .

4. Set your API key

   export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY='your-api-key-here'

5. Run Cortex

   cortex install docker

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Usage

Quick Start

# See Cortex in action (no API key needed)
cortex demo

# Configure your API key interactively
cortex wizard

# Check system status
cortex status

Basic Installation

# Preview what would be installed
cortex install docker

# Actually execute the installation
cortex install docker --execute

# Natural language works too
cortex install "web development tools" --execute

Dry Run (Preview Mode)

# See what would happen without executing
cortex install tensorflow --dry-run

Transaction History

# View what Cortex has done
cortex history

# Show details for specific installation
cortex history <id>

# Rollback an installation
cortex rollback <id>

Debug Mode

# Show verbose output
cortex -v install nginx

For more examples, please refer to the Documentation

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Safety Features

Feature	Description
Dry-run mode	Preview all commands before execution
Transaction log	Every operation is recorded with undo capability
Firejail sandbox	Optional sandboxing for untrusted packages
Confirmation prompts	Nothing executes without explicit approval
Rollback support	Integration with Timeshift/Snapper snapshots

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Roadmap

Completed

• Natural language to apt translation
• Dry-run mode (preview commands before execution)
• Firejail sandboxing with security controls
• Transaction history with rollback
• Rich terminal UI with CX branding
• Interactive setup wizard (cortex wizard)
• Local LLM fallback (Ollama support)
• Multi-provider support (Claude, GPT-4, Ollama)
• Input validation and security checks
• System status command (cortex status)

In Progress

• Hardware detection (GPU, CPU, RAM)
• Interactive fuzzy search (fzf integration)
• One-liner install script

Planned

• Offline mode with semantic caching
• System snapshot integration (Timeshift/Snapper)
• Web dashboard
• Package dependency visualization

See the open issues for a full list of proposed features and known issues.

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Contributing

Contributions make the open source community amazing. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines.

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Bounties

We pay contributors for merged PRs. 💰

Tier	Current	After Funding
Quick fix	$25	+$25 bonus
Small feature	$50	+$50 bonus
Medium feature	$75-100	+$75-100 bonus
Large feature	$150-175	+$150-175 bonus

Early contributors get double — when we close funding, all previous bounties receive a matching bonus.

See issues labeled bounty to get started.

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

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Contact

Mike Morgan - @mikejmorgan_ai

Project Link: https://github.com/cortexlinux/cortex

Discord: https://discord.gg/cortexlinux

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Acknowledgements

• Anthropic Claude - AI backbone
• LangChain - LLM orchestration
• Rich - Terminal formatting
• Firejail - Sandboxing
• Best-README-Template - This README structure

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