pktai

AI-assisted packet analysis in your terminal 🚀🤖📦💻

Meet pktai — a modern, Textual-powered TUI that blends Wireshark-like workflows with an AI copilot. Open a pcap, browse packets, and chat with an on-device LLM (via Ollama) to explain what’s going on. Apply Wireshark-style display filters or just ask in natural language — pktai routes the request to the right tool, instantly.

Project URL: https://github.com/kspviswa/pktai

Demo : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnPRs-cBtQM

Highlights

• Packet-first UI: Left pane shows packets and expandable per-layer details.
• Built-in Chat Copilot: Right pane is a chat that understands your capture context.
• Wireshark-like Filters: Apply display filters inline or via slash commands.
• NL → Filter: Ask “get me all NGAP packets” — pktai applies ngap automatically.
• Instant Stop: Cancel in-flight LLM responses with a Stop button.
• Zero mouse, pure keyboard: Fast and ergonomic terminal UX powered by Textual.

Installation

Requires Python 3.10+.

• Using pip:

  pip install pktai
  

• Using uv:

  uv add pktai
  

This installs the pktai command.

Quickstart

1. Optional: run a local LLM with Ollama (default model qwen3:latest):

ollama run qwen3:latest

2. Launch pktai:

pktai

3. Open a capture file: press o and pick a .pcap/.pcapng.

Using pktai

• Browse packets: Navigate the left pane; expand layers to inspect fields.
• Chat analysis: Ask questions in the right chat pane (e.g., “summarize traffic patterns”).
• Stop generation: While the model is responding, click Stop to cancel.
• Display filter (slash command): Type:
  • /df ngap && sctp.dstport == 38412
  • /df ip.src == 10.0.0.1 && tcp This applies the filter immediately without calling the LLM.
• Natural language filter: Ask “show only NGAP packets with dst port 38412” — pktai converts NL → display filter and applies it.
• Settings: Press s to open a compact Settings modal; choose model and tune generation parameters.

Feature Deep Dive

• Agentic Orchestrator: Routes your input between Filter, Packet, and Chat agents.
• Filtering Engine: Tokenizer + parser + evaluator for a practical Wireshark-like subset:
  • Protocol tokens (e.g., tcp, ngap), field presence (e.g., ip.src), equality/inequality on common fields (e.g., ip.src == 1.2.3.4, sctp.dstport != 38412), boolean &&/|| with parentheses.
  • Unsupported operators like contains/matches raise a clear error.
• LLM Abstraction: LLMService (OpenAI-compatible) talks to Ollama; switch models easily.
• Markdown Chat: Renders assistant replies nicely; optional expandable “Thought process”.
• Responsive UX: Soft-wrapping chat log, tight spacing, and a cancelable generation flow.

Tips & Troubleshooting

• If the chat doesn’t work, ensure Ollama is running and the model is available: ollama run qwen3:latest.
• To start without chat, simply use filtering and packet browsing; chat can be configured later.

Project

• Repository: https://github.com/kspviswa/pktai

License

MIT — see LICENSE.