GTK LLM Chat

A GTK graphical interface for chatting with Large Language Models (LLMs).

Key Features

• Simple and easy-to-use graphical interface built with GTK

• Support for multiple conversations in independent windows

• Integration with python-llm for chatting with various LLM models

• Modern interface using libadwaita

• Support for real-time streaming responses

• Message history with automatic scrolling

• Windows installer, Linux AppImage, and Macos bundles available!

• Markdown rendering of the responses

• Sidebar Navigation: Modern sidebar for model/provider selection, parameters, and settings.

• Model Parameters: Adjust temperature and system prompt per conversation.

• API Key Management: Banner with symbolic icons for setting/changing API keys per provider.

• Keyboard Shortcuts:

  • F10: Toggle sidebar
  • F2: Rename conversation
  • Escape: Minimize window
  • Enter: Send message
  • Shift+Enter: New line in input
  • Ctrl+W: Delete the current conversation
  • Ctrl+M: Open model selector
  • Ctrl+S: Edit system prompt
  • Ctrl+N: New conversation window

• Conversation Management: Rename and delete conversations.

• Tray Applet: Use a system tray applet for quick access to recent conversations.

• Error Handling: Clear error messages displayed in the chat.

• Dynamic Input: The input area dynamically adjusts its height.

Gtk-LLM-Chat is a graphical frontend for the command-line llm utility. Just as llm integrates large language models into the command line interface, Gtk-LLM-Chat aims to bring that same power to the desktop environment. Its goal is to provide intuitive affordances and seamless integration for using LLMs in everyday tasks — all while remaining convenient, lightweight, and transparent in its behavior.

Installation

Downloadable application bundles

While the command line is fun in every operating system, Gtk-LLM-Chat also offers prepackaged binary application bundles for all three major operating sytems: Windows installers, Linux Appimages and Macos Application Bundles are available in our releases section.

An effort has been made to support desktop integration across systems but your mileage may vary - as the Gtk tools are still maturing outside of the GNU/Linux ecosystem.

As an llm plugin

Playing with LLMs in the command line is fun! I recommend you to install llm and play around with it to size up the possibilities. Gtk-LLM-Chat can be installed as a plugin extension for llm itself, thus extending the possibilities of llm with some graphical features. Not all features of llm are exposed yet.

pipx install llm               # required by gtk-llm-chat
llm install gtk-llm-chat

You may want to copy the provided .desktop files to your ~/.local/share/applications/ folder. A welcome assistant will do this in the future for you.

System Requirements

• llm (when installing as an llm plugin)
• Python 3.8 or higher
• GTK 4.0
• libadwaita
• libayatana-appindicator (on linux)

These dependency installation instructions are collected here for reference only:

 # fedora: # sudo dnf install cairo-devel object-introspection-devel gtk4-devel pkgconf-pkg-config gcc redhat-rpm-config
 # debian: # sudo apt install libgtk-4-1 python3-gi python3-gi-cairo libadwaita-1-0 libayatana-appindicator3
 # arch: # sudo pacman -S python-gobject gtk4
 # windows (msys2): # pacman -S mingw-w64-$(uname -m)-gtk4 mingw-w64-$(uname -m)-python-pip mingw-w64-$(uname -m)-python3-gobject mingw-w64-$(uname -m)-libadwaita mingw-w64-x86_64-python3-pillow
 # macos (homebrew): # brew install pygobject3 gtk4 adwaita-icon-theme libadwaita

Usage

Running the Application

To start the applet (system tray mode):

llm gtk-applet

To start a single chat window:

llm gtk-chat

Optional arguments:

llm gtk-chat --cid CONVERSATION_ID   # Continue a specific conversation
llm gtk-chat -s "System prompt"      # Set system prompt
llm gtk-chat -m model_name           # Select specific model
llm gtk-chat -c                      # Continue last conversation

Development

To set up the development environment:

git clone https://github.com/icarito/gtk-llm-chat.git
cd gtk-llm-chat
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

Shoulders of giants

This project is made possible thanks to these great components, among others:

• llm by @simonw
• hello-world-gtk by @zevlee

License

GPLv3 License - See LICENSE file for more details.