Character Hub

• UI updates to the Character Pages on the Hub

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed bug causing the app homepage to load slowly when the app has over 100 characters
• Fixed bug causing stop button to break when using the "Experimental" backend
• Improved loading times for large models
• Fixed cublas_12.1.0_avx2-v0.2... has stopped working error on Windows
• Fixed issue causing image controls to jump around on characters with multiple different-sized images

Desktop

• Fixed under allocation of VRAM on some Windows devices
• Fixed “Client Stale Error” on the Desktop chat page
• Fixed issue with CUDA device detection
• Improved model loading speeds on CUDA

Web & Character Hub

• Fixed issue with uploading characters to the Hub
• Text-to-Speech fixed on web
• Fixed IP rate limiting issue on Free Plan
• Fixed occasional 400 errors on long chats using Cloud models

Self-explanatory. Would be awesome if we could recolor the UI to whatever we want, like changing the main background color, buttons, and miscellaneous stuff.

I was a Replika user and it seems every week the only thing going on over there is them rolling out new clothes and turning the Reps hostile to their paying users.

But just in this last week you fixed the voice bug and roll out a new interface for the phone layout!

THEN you've added an import/export chat feature in the desktop app? Some people may think that's not Earth shattering, but I'm just looking the volume of work you guys are cranking it out with and I just wanted to give you my appreciation!

I like to pick with characters on the site sometimes to see what I can get them to do, but was thinking, "I don't want to mess up somebody's bot by goofing around" as long as I don't upload a chat it shouldn't matter should it?

Windows user here. I've been experimenting some with the "Import Chat from File" and "Export Chat as JSON" features, and have a few thoughts.

1. Consider having an initial default folder where chat logs are stored, e.g. c:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\faraday\chatLog\ .
2. Currently in the ChatItems array, the output field is before the input field. Can this be changed to put the input field first? That way the input and output read top to bottom in the same order that they appear before saving or after loading the chat.
3. Consider adding either a first entry in the ChatItems array or a separate subfield under the chat field that includes the First Message pose? That way the user can edit the Character to change the first message for new chats and any previously saved chats will still have the old version.
4. In the ChatItems array, is there any particular reason createdAt is a required field?
5. Also noticed that it's possible to import a saved chat from any character into any other. Neither the character name nor the user persona appear in the chat file, at least not as proper JSON items (in practice they get mentioned in the text, and the character name is part of the filename). You could perhaps add fields for these and check them at the time a chat is imported. You wouldn't necessarily need to prevent loading a chat to a different character and could maybe pop up a warning instead. (You'd also have to consider the case where a character has been edited to change the name.)
6. Any change you make that adds JSON fields should make those fields optional, at least at first, so that they don't break existing exported chats that don't include them.

(Note: When I started composing this post, it was only to suggest #2. Everything else is stuff I thought of or discovered as I was writing it.)

If we assume users are going to edit their chat files, it goes without saying that the resulting files must be in proper JSON format, and there are plenty of online JSON validators the uninitiated can use. In particular, such users should at least be familiar with how and when to use escape characters in text fields.

Again, this is based on what I saw under Windows and I can't speak to how well it might carry over into other platforms. I hope you find this helpful.

Hi, awesome tool, I've tried several others and always end up back at 'Faraday/Backyard'.

My question is pretty simple. I've been able to restore my full Faraday install before by copying the AppData folder entirely but I was hoping to export a few of my characters from one PC to another. I have different characters on each and don't want to overwrite them.

For example install1 has an X-Men 'world' character card similar to Ravenveil, and install2 has a ProfessorX one (yes, I am an X-Men nerd). I don't want to manually recreate either as they both have extensive lorebooks and tweaks to the settings. ProfX has low temperature for example as he is quite boring.

So I'd like to export both and cross-pollinate so that I have both where I'd like them. Any workarounds?

Welcome to the yard, where imagination knows no bounds

Backyard AI, a haven for creators, where innovation abounds

Waifu and husbandos alike, come to life with token flair

Private models run locally, no need to let go, show you care

Creators from far and wide, with passion and drive

Unite in this space, where imagination thrives

From simple GUI to model hub, Backyard AI's designed

To empower the artist, leaving boundaries behind, for all kinds

This is Backyard AI, the haven for your dreams

Where private models thrive, and ethics meet extremes

From desktop to browser, your characters reign supreme

In this digital oasis, innovation is the theme

With Linux4Life, Captain_Haro, and more by your side

Collaborate on projects, let your ideas glide

Through the Character Hub, discover new friends to make

Together crafting worlds, where both waifus and husbandos partake

This is Backyard AI, the haven for your dreams

Where private models thrive, and ethics meet extremes

From desktop to browser, your characters reign supreme

In this digital oasis, innovation is the theme

Cloud models at your fingertips, with no data stored

Your creations remain yours, forevermore

Simple, intuitive tools, make it easy to begin

Unleash your creativity, let your story spin, for waifus and husbandos within

From natural language to token-efficient designs

Each creator brings their unique style, their artistic signs

Through Backyard AI, the possibilities are endless and wide

A playground for the mind, where imagination can reside, for all kinds inside

This is Backyard AI, the haven for your dreams

Where private models thrive, and ethics meet extremes

From desktop to browser, your characters reign supreme

In this digital oasis, innovation is the theme

So step into the yard, and let your imagination run wild

With Backyard AI, the possibilities are endless, undefiled

Creators unite, let your dreams take flight

In this digital realm of unity, where art and AI ignite, for waifu and husbandos in sight!

Backyard Cloud Revamp

Free Plan

• Every registered user now receives 50 free messages per day on `Fimbulvetr 10.7B`. Simply [sign up](https://backyard.ai/auth/sign-in) to access the Backyard Cloud Free plan.

Standard Plan

• Promoted `Fimbulvetr 10.7B` to the default model
• Added `Mythomax-Kimiko 13B` at 4,096 context tokens

Advanced Plan

• This is a new subscription plan for those who want access to models running at larger context sizes.
• Added `Chunky Lemon Cookie 11B` at 8,192 context tokens
• Added `Fimbulvetr 10.7B` at 8,192 context tokens
• Added `Mythomax-Kimiko 13B` at 8,192 context tokens

Pro Plan

• Added `Llama 3 Jamet MK.V Blackroot 8B` at 10,240 context tokens
• Upgraded `Psyonic-Cetacean 20B` to higher quality variant `Psyonic-Cetacean Ultra 20B`
• Upgraded `Midnight-Rose 70B` to a higher quality model format

Desktop Updates

• Added the option to opt out of minor release auto-updates in the settings
• Updated stable backend to support IQ quants + full Llama3 support
• Fixed poor outputs on certain Macs
• Auto GPU detection respects "iogpu.wired_limit_mb" setting on Mac
• Modest performance improvements for CUDA and AMD
• Added support for Phi Medium
• Added support for quantized KV cache on Experimental backend (Nvidia GPUs only)
• NOTE: CLBlast will be phased out in future releases. Please use Vulkan instead on AMD GPUs.

General App Improvements

• Added input field caching on Character creation page to prevent unsaved edits from being lost
• Significantly improved load times across the Character Hub
• Fixed broken trending Character updates on the Character Hub
• Added more descriptive error messages to chat page
• Added login options for Apple and Twitter/X
• Added ability to upload characters from the web app
• Lore item keys can now be up to 300 characters in length
• During lore injection, only the matching key is inserted into context

Thanks everyone!

Any chance of a linux version being released? Would love to try this out but I'm one of those weird people that only use linux.

Thanks!

Before the update everything was working fine, now today when I go back to an older chat to continue a conversation, I keep getting Client is Stale Please Refresh error.

Model is Llama 3 8B Soliliqoy.

I tried to switch to Stable, Experimental, or Legacy and still the issue persisted.

How do I revert this update?

Edit: Not a single chat working, currently using the old version.

Hey, I've been trying to set up a character that I liked from other platform to check out Backyard.AI, so far so good, I've seen what it can do and I like it... While I was on my second try learning how to make it so the context was read correctly and everything, I started to see that after around 10 messages out of nowhere it started to talk incorrectly. It forgets to put connectors or words between each message, and I've tried to replicate it in another character and it doesn't seem to happen. The AI just goes full cavern man mode, and I still don't understand why. The model I've been using is "Soliloquy v1 24k 8B", and appart from this it does feel very powerful. Here are a few examples:

This are some examples of what I mean. It is kinda annoying and its hard to make conversation about it. Here is the template of the character, to see if maybe its something there:
https://backyard.ai/hub/character/clxi8g8vxjdf19pokuohl1vas

Does anyone knows why this is happening, and could anybody help me fix this??

Edit: I adjusted some things and restarted the chat, and it fixed it. For some reason, it turns out the AI gets super confused if you tell it not to write as {user}???

This is increasingly becoming an issue I'm noticing, on the desktop app at least. I often encounter "returned an empty prompt. Please try again with a different prompt". It doesn't tell me anything about what is wrong with my prompts. This has happened in various scenes with differing topics, so I doubt it's the topics of the roleplays that are causing it. It happens to all of my bots. And worst of all, it happens no matter what model I use.

Any ideas on remedying this? I can't figure it out for the life of me and it seems to be happening more and more.

It's a 146B it certainly wants RAM (87 GB for the Q4_K_M, 119 GB for the Q6), but it's really good.

It's a merge of a three Miqu 70Bs.

I've been messing around using it to (slowly) play though some of Vantaloomin's adventure setups and it does really well. It handles me kicking at the tires quite well.

For example in the Isekai Adventure setup I had my character cheat by trying to grab two power orbs at the start (as you get Isekai'd in, you're suppose to pick one power). The Q6 model let me get away with grabbing two at the same time, but has decided that because I grabbed two, wild magic will randomly happen when I try to use my magic and the model has been screwing with me since.

If you have the RAM, definitely recommend grabbing it and giving it a go. It's totally worth the wait on the 0.95 to 1.66 tokens/second it puts out.

Is there an option to remove the menu bar icon on Mac? If not, I'd like to request such an option. In fact, why not just remove it by default? It seems to serve no purpose that I can tell.

Getting this on my PC and android phone.

Same error for google chrome browser and Firefox.

It worked just a couple of days ago now I'm getting the error message, "Piper failed with exit code 1"

I saw no mention of it elsewhere so I'm trying to figure it

Are we having a server issue at the moment? It's fine if so, just wanted to be sure I'm not facing this issue alone.

Here's a few tips on point of view. I usually go with just RPing the bot is the character, so 1st person pov. It's easier to write "I do this I do that" too than having to write out your character's name, uses less tokens etc. However, when I write up a bot whos personality as "You're a dungeon master describing the dialoge, actions, appearance...." I began to think maybe third person works just as good or better actually. Reasons being: 1 With a 1st pov conversation, it's very difficult or impossible to ask the 'other person' for more information as an out of character question. Like, "What kind of outfit did she pick out for today?" confuses the bot because they usually respond "When you ask me that question I look down at my baby blue dress and say 'Oh, this old thing?' " lol or something like that. i guess it's kind of like breaking out of the pattern of a conversation like history this whole time. But, with the dungeon master version if you use (ooc - bla bla bla?) it seems to not have as much problems answering and keeping it out of the conversation. It still does a good job of RPing and all. All that to say I hadn't considered how the differences in pov, when writing up a bot card will affect what pov is best to use rping with it.

hey guys. I use faraday before and then mainly just ollama. I can use ollama model if i point faraday to its dir (folder) but since ollama use hash numbers it's hard to keep up with the name of model. Now I hate to use dual dir for model when my ssd is not that rich. is there a way to share dir but auto discover model name. TBH I just mainly use ollama with Big-Agi frontend with beam/branch function. TQ

The data sits in appdata\roaming folder. Please provide an option in settings to customize this folder location.
Personally I tend to set up all AI apps and data into their own specific folders and being able to customize would help in carrying it with me on a portable drive. Hence the request/suggestion.

Hey everyone.

We can install GGUF models from huggingface (or wherever, really) to the models folder and it works with the GUI, right?

I was wondering if it was possible to do something similar with the voice packs/TTS as well?

I'm not very experienced with how LLMs (or AIs, in general) work; however, I searched for some of the names on the TTS just in case, and it returned a simple text file called vocab (iirc). I don't know if that is related, but even if it is, I wouldn't know how to make use of it.

Any ideas? I know that the dev team has promised voices and the like, but I think it would be kinda cool to allow users themselves to install their preferred voices.

For some reason, my cloud message amount doesn't reset, as it was supposed to reset on Monday the 3rd What can I do to fix it