kortalk 0.5.8

Korvus AI popup: selected text → Claude, OpenAI, local models. Tray, streaming, two languages.

kortalk

Korvus AI popup — part of the korvus family apps. An AI popup for selected text in the spirit of Crow Translate: select text with the mouse → press a hotkey → a window with the AI response pops up near the cursor. Lives in the tray, streams responses, supports multiple providers.

Features

• Popup near the cursor — rounded corners, Markdown rendering with highlighted code blocks, real-time token streaming, text selection/copying, draggable by the mouse. Closes on an outside click or Escape.
• Two-column window — editable prompt+text on the left, response on the right, provider selector in the toolbar, Ctrl+Enter to send.
• Tray — the application is resident: a monochrome raven icon (Corvus — the korvus emblem), left click = open the two-column window, a menu with the prompt library, a popup with the selection, settings and quit.
• Global hotkeys inside the application — one prompt-to-key table in Settings → Prompts: each prompt has its own hotkey that opens the popup with that prompt and the current selection (the default prompt, "Explain", ships with Ctrl+Alt+C), plus a separate hotkey to open the two-column window (Ctrl+Alt+W by default). X11 — direct XGrabKey interception, Wayland — the system GlobalShortcuts portal. No external tools or DE configuration required.
• Prompt library — any number of named prompts in Settings, each with its own hotkey and reachable from the tray submenu; one is marked as the default (used by the prompt's own popup hotkey).
• AI providers:
  • Claude Code CLI — via claude -p, no API key (default);
  • Anthropic API — official SDK, streaming (API key required);
  • OpenAI-compatible APIs — OpenAI, Ollama, LM Studio, OpenRouter, Groq, DeepSeek and any other service with /chat/completions (configured with base URL + model + key; local servers need no key).
• Graphical settings — prompts, hotkeys, theme, font, popup sizes, timeouts, a provider manager with keys, autostart at login. The config is human-readable YAML (~/.config/kortalk/config.yaml).
• Theme and fonts — follows the environment theme (Qt) by default, optionally Nord Dark / Nord Light.
• Two interface languages — English (default) and Russian: Settings → General → Language.
• PRIMARY selection is read natively via Qt — xclip/xsel/wl-clipboard are not needed. Works on X11 and Wayland.

Installation

pipx install kortalk
kortalk --check     # diagnostics: providers, tray, PRIMARY selection

No system packages or flags like --system-site-packages are required — Qt (PySide6) comes from PyPI. The only external dependency is Claude Code CLI, and only if you use the claude-cli provider.

The config lives in ~/.config/kortalk/config.yaml and is edited via Settings (or by hand). Configs of older versions (toml/ini) are not used.

Usage

kortalk                       # start the daemon (tray + hotkeys)
kortalk --popup               # popup near the cursor (for scripts/external hotkeys)
kortalk "Translate to English:"   # popup with a one-off prompt
kortalk --window              # two-column window (alias: --split)
kortalk --provider ollama     # one-off request through a specific provider
kortalk --settings            # settings
kortalk --quit                # quit the running instance
kortalk --check               # diagnostics

The main scenario: kortalk starts the daemon, everything else is done from the tray and via global hotkeys. The CLI flags are kept for scripting — they are delivered to the running instance instantly over a local socket.

The text is taken from the PRIMARY selection — selecting it with the mouse is enough, no Ctrl+C needed.

Hotkeys

Assigned in Settings → Prompts — the "Open window" hotkey at the top of the tab, and one hotkey per prompt in the list below it. All of them work globally:

• X11 — the application grabs the keys directly (XGrabKey), works in any WM/DE without configuration.
• Wayland — the XDG Desktop Portal (GlobalShortcuts) is used; GNOME/KDE will show a binding confirmation dialog. If the portal is not available (minimalist compositors) — use the tray or bind kortalk --popup to a hotkey in your compositor.

Provider setup

kortalk --settings → Providers tab. Examples:

Provider	Type	Base URL	Model
Claude Code CLI	claude-cli	—	(empty = CLI default)
Anthropic API	anthropic	—	claude-opus-4-8
OpenAI	openai	https://api.openai.com/v1	gpt-4o
Ollama	openai	http://localhost:11434/v1	llama3, qwen3, …
LM Studio	openai	http://localhost:1234/v1	name of the loaded model
OpenRouter	openai	https://openrouter.ai/api/v1	anything from the catalog

The "active provider" is used by default for the popup; in the window the provider is picked from a dropdown, for one-off requests — with --provider <id>.

Autostart

Settings → General → "Start at login" — creates ~/.config/autostart/kortalk.desktop running kortalk.

Development

git clone https://github.com/r4ven-me/kortalk && cd kortalk
python -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e '.[test]' ruff
ruff check .                        # linter
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=offscreen pytest    # tests (headless)
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=offscreen kortalk --check   # headless diagnostics

Layout: src/kortalk/ — app.py (CLI, tray, IPC), providers.py (AI workers), hotkeys.py (XGrabKey / portal), windows.py (popup and main window), settings_dialog.py, config.py, theme.py.

Logs of the running application: ~/.local/state/kortalk/kortalk.log (verbose output — the --debug flag).

Credits

The tray/window raven icon is based on the "raven" icon from SVG Repo, recoloured at runtime to match the active theme.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.