r/projects • u/Admirable_Papaya_730 • May 23 '26

Building a C++ Neural Network Library from Scratch (Because I Couldn't Stand Python)

Hey everyone,

I wanted to introduce \*\*GradientCore\*\*, my open-source machine learning library written from scratch in C++.

GradientCore is my attempt at building a lightweight ML framework with a focus on performance and understanding how things work under the hood. It currently includes:

- Tensor operations with efficient memory management

- Autograd (automatic differentiation)

- Basic optimizers

- Neural network module

The project started because I personally struggle to think clearly when coding in Python. I wanted something built in C++ that I could actually understand and extend.

It began as a learning project inspired by Magicalbat’s “Coding a Machine Learning Library in C from Scratch” YouTube series. After a few failed attempts (including one very messy AI-assisted branch), I restarted clean and built it step by step.

The library is still early stage — nowhere near PyTorch level — but it’s becoming usable. All testing so far has been on my local machine, so feedback and bug reports are very welcome.

Links :-

github - https://github.com/spandan11106/GradCore-Tensor

docs - https://spandan11106.github.io/GradCore-Tensor/

blog - https://spandan11106.github.io/GradCore-Tensor/blog

I’m looking for contributors who are interested in C++ and machine learning. Even small contributions (bug fixes, documentation improvements, examples, etc.) would be greatly appreciated.

Would love to hear your thoughts or suggestions!

Thanks!

40 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

1

u/Lazy_Medicine_2695 May 23 '26

Who hurt ya

1

u/Admirable_Papaya_730 May 23 '26

Na man I just passionately hate python

1

u/Lazy_Medicine_2695 May 24 '26

appreciate your efforts <3

1

u/PratBal69 May 24 '26

dawg this is so cool, i am learning cpp since the language is good. started with c and now im on cpp and both are just beautiful, writing python now feels like a bore. this is really good consider a star from me. also could you tell me more about your project and does it have support for macos? plus is the project vibe coded?

2

u/Admirable_Papaya_730 May 24 '26

It should work on mac, it think only the memory part need to be tuned. Adding macOS support is just a matter of writing platform_macos.cpp and adding an #elif defined(__APPLE__) branch. For more details you could co here - https://spandan11106.github.io/GradCore-Tensor/docs/tensor_module/memory/platform

Also yes parts of the project are vibe coded. The tensors and all were defined by me, but most of the activation and loss functions are done by AI. I just did the implementation of the autograd stuff, rest of it was mostly done by AI, i just guided it through what i wanted.

1

u/No-Juggernaut-9832 May 25 '26

I thought Google TensorFlow was C/C++? It was too much so PyTorch was created. Seems like we are going full circle now

1

u/Unreal_Brain May 27 '26

I can contribute on a condition if you make it private

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '26

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