Quote Forge

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle

What I Built

I built QuoteForge Local, a private, local-first AI proposal and quote builder designed for freelancers.

A freelancer can enter:

• A client's project brief
• Service or project type
• Hourly rate
• Estimated hours
• Additional expenses

QuoteForge then generates a professional proposal draft using the open-weight Llama 3.2 model running locally through Ollama.

The important part is that AI does not control the price.

The quote is calculated separately by application code:

Hourly Rate × Estimated Hours + Additional Expenses

This keeps the financial calculation deterministic while AI is used only for proposal wording.

Who would pay for it?

The target users are freelancers, independent developers, designers, marketers, consultants, and other solo service providers who regularly create client proposals.

The value proposition is simple: spend less time writing repetitive proposals while keeping sensitive client information local.

What problem does it solve?

Freelancers often have to repeatedly turn a short client brief into a structured proposal. Existing AI tools can help with the writing, but they often require sending client information to a hosted AI service.

QuoteForge explores a different approach:

Can AI help create useful freelance proposals without requiring the client's project brief to leave the freelancer's machine?

Demo

Repository:

https://github.com/shikharahirwar489-ui/quoteforge-local

The application currently runs locally with Docker Compose.

docker compose up --build

Then open:

http://127.0.0.1:8000

The first launch downloads the Ollama runtime/model. Later launches reuse the local model volume.

There is currently no hosted demo because the project is intentionally designed around local inference.

Code

GitHub Repository:

https://github.com/shikharahirwar489-ui/quoteforge-local

The repository contains the complete application, Docker configuration, frontend, backend, prompts, and setup instructions.

The project is released under the MIT License.

How I Built It

QuoteForge is built around open-weight AI running locally.

AI

• Llama 3.2 — open-weight language model
• Ollama — local model runtime

The model is responsible for generating the proposal wording from the freelancer's project information.

I deliberately kept the AI's responsibility narrow.

The model is instructed to avoid inventing:

• Credentials
• Previous clients
• Deliverables
• Deadlines
• Guarantees
• Other unsupported claims

If important information is missing, the proposal should flag it for the freelancer to confirm instead of making it up.

Application

The application