I've been building Cerne Code — a free, open-source desktop coding agent that runs 100% locally. Think "Claude Code" as a desktop app, but free and compatible with Ollama, llama.cpp, LM Studio, and any OpenAI-compatible API.

This post covers the architecture, key technical decisions, and what I learned along the way.

Stack

Tauri v2 (Rust backend) — native Windows app, ~5MB binary

Vue 3 + PrimeVue — reactive frontend with a polished UI