dharma-niti-chatbot

DharmaNiti – Indian Wisdom Chatbot

DharmaNiti is a lightweight web-based chatbot that provides simple, safe guidance inspired by Bhagavad Gita and Chanakya Niti.
It uses a Flask backend and HTML/CSS/JavaScript frontend.[page:0]

Features

• Indian wisdom answers
  • For each user question, the bot returns a relevant Bhagavad Gita verse + explanation.
  • And a Chanakya Niti quote with a practical takeaway.[page:0]
• Theme detection
  • work – job, career, study, exams, etc.
  • mind – stress, tension, sadness, low motivation, etc.
  • relations – friends, family, love, trust, betrayal, etc.[page:0]
• Tags-based relevance
  • Each verse/quote has a list of tags.
  • The bot scores items by how many tags match the user’s question and picks the best match.[page:0]
• Safe-mode (basic safety layer)
  • Detects highly sensitive queries (suicide / self-harm / severe harm).
  • Always returns a hopeful Gita verse (e.g., 6.5).
  • Plus a clear message that this bot is not a medical/mental health substitute and encourages talking to a trusted person or professional.[page:0]
• Simple, modern UI
  • Flask + Jinja template.
  • Custom CSS with a dark theme, small “ॐ” logo, and chat bubbles.[page:0]

Tech Stack

• Backend: Python, Flask
• Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Data: JSON files (data/gita_verses.json, data/chanakya_summaries.json)[page:0]

Project Structure

ai-chatbot-project/
│ app.py
│
├── data/
│   ├── gita_verses.json
│   └── chanakya_summaries.json
│
├── templates/
│   └── index.html
│
└── static/
    ├── style.css
    └── script.js

Getting Started

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/dharma-niti-chatbot.git
cd dharma-niti-chatbot

2. Create virtual environment (optional but recommended)

python -m venv env
# Windows:
env\Scripts\activate
# Linux/macOS:
# source env/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies

pip install flask

4. Run the app

python app.py

Then open in your browser:

http://127.0.0.1:5000/

You should now see the DharmaNiti chatbot UI running locally.[page:0]

---

Note on GitHub Pages / Rendering

This project is built as a Flask web app, so the chatbot UI is rendered by the Python backend (app.py) and served at http://localhost:5000 when you run it locally.[page:0]

When you open the GitHub Pages link:

https://pranjali0408.github.io/dharma-niti-chatbot/

you will only see a static page generated from the repository (README-like view), not the live chatbot UI.[page:0][web:49]

This is expected because:

• GitHub Pages can host only static files (HTML, CSS, JS).
• It cannot run a Python/Flask backend, so app.py never starts on GitHub Pages.[web:49]

How to use this project right now

For now, I am using this project in two ways:

1. Local demo (fully working chatbot)
   • Run python app.py.
   • Open http://localhost:5000 in the browser.
   • This is what I use for demos, recordings, and testing.[page:0]
2. Public code + documentation on GitHub Pages
   • The GitHub Pages URL is used only to show the repository content and documentation.
   • It does not host the live Flask app itself.[page:0]

Future deployment options (planned)

To make the chatbot accessible online without running it locally, I am exploring:

• Option A – Deploy Flask backend on a Python-friendly hosting service
  • Host app.py on a platform that supports Python (e.g. Render / Railway / Fly.io).
  • Serve both backend and frontend from there.[web:48]
• Option B – Separate frontend on GitHub Pages + external API
  • Keep a static index.html + script.js on GitHub Pages.
  • Update script.js to call the deployed Flask backend via an API endpoint such as https://<backend-url>/chat instead of http://localhost:5000.[web:48][web:49]

Until one of these deployment options is set up, the chatbot will work only when run locally via python app.py and will not appear as an interactive bot on the github.io URL.[page:0][web:49]