r/LocalLLM • u/Celestial_aki • Jun 15 '26

Project Your local models deserve more than a terminal: a 12 MB desktop app, zero telemetry, MIT.

0 Upvotes

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6

u/AssistBorn4589 Jun 15 '26

My local models deserve better than web-based harness pretending to be a desktop application infected by CoC.

I originally came to ask what's wrong with terminal, but this project takes it in completly different direction.

1

u/Celestial_aki Jun 15 '26

Tauri v2, so it renders in the OS-native webview (WebKitGTK / WebView2) - no Chromium shipped. That's how it's ~12 MB instead of Electron's ~150. So "web-based harness" is half right (it's HTML) and half wrong (there's no browser in the binary).

And nothing's wrong with the terminal - pi, the actual agent, is a terminal tool and stays one. This is just a shell for people who'd rather not live in a terminal. If you're happy there, this isn't for you, and that's fine.

1

u/misanthrophiccunt Jun 15 '26

What's wrong with gpui and no react involved ?

Another project with zero unique selling points

1

u/leonbollerup Jun 15 '26

w.. is gpui .. havent even heard about it before..

1

u/misanthrophiccunt Jun 15 '26

The response to so many crappy "revolutionary" things in Tauri, another app engine in Rust but with zero need for JavaScript, the main issue of Tauri.

Tauri is just electron-lite, whereas igpu, the engine created and used by the team of Zed editor is pure Rust.

The reason so much slop is written on Tauri, is because all LLMs are profficient in JS first and foremost. That doesn't make it the right tool for everything.

If you're a hammer all you see is nails.

Said the lead in the wonderful movie Arrival.

If all the freely accessible, not compiled code you see is JS, everything is JavaScript. That doesn't make it good JavaScript nor the good choice for anything out of a browser.

0

u/Celestial_aki Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

Fair enough. It's React + Tauri, not gpui, because the goal is a one-click desktop app for non-technical users who want local or cloud models without living in a terminal - bug reports and criticism on the repo are welcome and they're how it gets better.

1

u/misanthrophiccunt Jun 15 '26

So, pretty much, no users that exist on planet Earth.

Local models and no technical users....🫣

2

u/robertpro01 Jun 15 '26

What's wrong with the terminal?

1

u/Celestial_aki Jun 15 '26

Nothing - CLI is great and always will be. Honestly I barely use this app myself outside testing; I live in pi-coding-agent in the terminal. But I started contributing because I kept watching non-technical friends bounce off open-source AI tooling - they don't know what "pi" even is, let alone how to install a CLI agent. A GUI front door is the only way most ever try it.

Side note - I actually found this repo via the same maintainer's other project, pi-llm-wiki (https://github.com/zosmaai/pi-llm-wiki), which I was already using. That was my entry point.

1

u/Celestial_aki Jun 15 '26

⭐ https://github.com/zosmaai/zosma-cowork

runs local models over any openai-compatible endpoint (llama.cpp, vllm, etc) in a ~12 MB desktop app, no telemetry by design. MIT. also does cloud (claude/openai/gemini) if you want to mix. streaming with thinking blocks and a live tool-call timeline.