TalkPipe Writing Assistant

Making the AI write with you, not for you.

An AI-powered writing assistant that transforms how you create structured documents. This application combines intelligent content generation with intuitive document management, enabling writers to craft professional documents with contextually-aware AI assistance that understands your style, audience, and objectives.

Built on the TalkPipe framework, this tool helps you:

• Break writer's block: Generate initial drafts and ideas for any section
• Maintain consistency: AI understands your document's context, style, and tone across all sections
• Iterate quickly: Multiple generation modes (rewrite, improve, proofread, ideas) let you refine content efficiently
• Stay organized: Structure documents into sections with main points and supporting text
• Use the LLM of your choice: Works with LLM endpoints including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Ollama — cloud APIs, compatible gateways, or fully local, offline models

Features

• Multi-User Support: JWT-based authentication with per-user document isolation
• Structured Document Creation: Organize your writing into sections with main points and user text
• AI-Powered Generation: Generate contextually-aware paragraph content using advanced language models
• Multiple Generation Modes:
  • Rewrite: Complete rewrite with new ideas and improved clarity
  • Improve: Polish existing text while maintaining structure
  • Proofread: Fix grammar and spelling errors only
  • Ideas: Get specific suggestions for enhancement
• Real-time Editing: Dynamic web interface for seamless writing and editing
• Terminal Interface: writing-assistant-tui offers the same features in any terminal — an SSH session, a tmux window, a machine with no browser
• Document Management: Save, load, and manage multiple documents, with snapshots you can revert to
• User Preferences: Per-user AI settings, writing style, and environment variables
• Customizable Metadata: Configure writing style, tone, audience, and generation parameters
• Flexible AI Backend: Works with LLM endpoints including OpenAI (GPT-4, GPT-4o), Anthropic (Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3 Opus), and Ollama (llama3, mistral, etc.)
• Database Storage: SQLite database with configurable location for easy backup and deployment
• Async Processing: Efficient queuing system for AI generation requests

Pre-built container (Podman or Docker)

CI publishes a public image to GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io/sandialabs/talkpipe-writing-assistant; Linux amd64/arm64; no registry login needed). Run it with the database persisted under /app/data:

podman run --rm -p 8001:8001 \
  -v wa_data:/app/data \
  ghcr.io/sandialabs/talkpipe-writing-assistant:latest

Then open http://localhost:8001 (use http, not https). docker run works with the same flags. run pulls the image automatically — no separate pull step is needed.

Tags: latest — stable release; experimental — pre-releases. Images are published only on releases, each also tagged with its version and commit SHA.

For Windows notes, connectivity troubleshooting, building from a local clone, and production deployment, see the Container Deployment Guide.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11.4 or higher
• Access to an LLM endpoint: OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama (local), or any compatible endpoint

Note: On most modern systems (Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, macOS with Homebrew), installing into the system Python is blocked or pip is not installed at all. Create a virtual environment first — the pip commands below assume one is active:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate   # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

Install from pip (Recommended)

pip install talkpipe-writing-assistant

After installation, you can start the application immediately:

writing-assistant

Then navigate to http://localhost:8001 in your browser. See the Quick Start section below for next steps.

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe-writing-assistant.git
cd talkpipe-writing-assistant
pip install -e .

Development Installation

git clone https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe-writing-assistant.git
cd talkpipe-writing-assistant
pip install -e .[dev]

Development environment (uv, with a reproducible lock)

The repo includes uv.lock so contributors share one resolved set of versions. Install uv, then:

git clone https://github.com/sandialabs/talkpipe-writing-assistant.git
cd talkpipe-writing-assistant
uv sync --extra dev

Run tests and tools via the project environment, for example uv run pytest, or activate the virtualenv (.venv on Unix: source .venv/bin/activate).

Code quality. CI fails on any finding from ruff check ., ruff format --check ., or mypy (rule set and type-checking config live in pyproject.toml), so run them before pushing — ruff check --fix . && ruff format . fixes most findings. To run the same checks on every commit, opt in once per clone with uv run pre-commit install; pre-commit run --all-files reproduces the CI gate locally.

CI does not use the lockfile. It installs with pip (pip install -e '.[dev]') and resolves dependencies fresh, on purpose: that is what someone running pip install talkpipe-writing-assistant gets, so the build breaks when they would break. A dependency problem that only the lockfile hides is one we want CI to see — this project has been bitten by exactly that, when an unpinned FastAPI release broke it.

Two consequences worth remembering:

• uv.lock is a development convenience. It pins nothing for users and is not a security control — the version floors in pyproject.toml are what actually protect an install. Fix a vulnerable dependency by raising its floor, not by refreshing the lock.
• The lock must still stay honest. CI runs uv lock --check, which installs nothing and fails only when uv.lock and pyproject.toml have drifted apart. After changing dependencies in pyproject.toml, run uv lock and commit uv.lock. To bump versions, use uv lock --upgrade or uv lock --upgrade-package <name>.

Using a container (Podman or Docker)

Build and run from the repository (as opposed to the pre-built GHCR image above):

# Optional: create a local configuration file first
cp .env.example .env

# Production deployment
podman-compose up writing-assistant

# Development with live reload
podman-compose --profile dev up writing-assistant-dev

docker-compose (or docker compose) works with the same arguments.

See the Container Deployment Guide for the full deployment guide (configuration, backups, user management, and production hardening).

Quick Start

TL;DR: After pip install talkpipe-writing-assistant, just run writing-assistant and open http://localhost:8001 in your browser!

After installing with pip, follow these steps to get started:

1. Start the Server

writing-assistant

The server will start on http://localhost:8001 and display:

🔐 Writing Assistant Server - Multi-User Edition
📝 Access your writing assistant at: http://localhost:8001/
🔑 Register a new account at: http://localhost:8001/register
🔐 Login at: http://localhost:8001/login
📚 API documentation: http://localhost:8001/docs
💾 Database: /home/user/.writing_assistant/writing_assistant.db

2. Create Your Account

1. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:8001/register
2. Enter your email address and password
3. Click "Create Account", then log in on the login page

3. Configure AI Backend

Point the application at an LLM endpoint — OpenAI, Anthropic, and Ollama are supported out of the box:

Option A: OpenAI (Cloud)

1. Get an API key from OpenAI Platform
2. Set your API key:

   export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-api-key-here"
   

3. In the web interface: Settings → AI Settings → Set Source to openai and Model to your model of choice (in the terminal interface: F3 → AI Settings).

Option B: Anthropic (Cloud)

1. Get an API key from Anthropic Console
2. Set your API key:

   export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-your-api-key-here"
   

3. In the web interface: Settings → AI Settings → Set Source to anthropic and Model to your model of choice (in the terminal interface: F3 → AI Settings).

Option C: Ollama (Local, Free)

1. Install Ollama from ollama.com
2. Pull a model: ollama pull [model name]
3. Start Ollama: ollama serve
4. In the web interface: Settings → AI Settings → Set Source to ollama and Model to [model name] (in the terminal interface: F3 → AI Settings). The name must match one Ollama has pulled: ollama list shows them on the Ollama machine, or curl http://your-ollama-host:11434/api/tags from anywhere; Test Connection reports a name Ollama does not have.

If Ollama runs on a different machine (or a non-default port), set TALKPIPE_OLLAMA_SERVER_URL before starting the server (if the server is already running, stop it and start it again with the variable set):

export TALKPIPE_OLLAMA_SERVER_URL="http://your-ollama-host:11434"
writing-assistant

Alternatively, set it without restarting the server: in the web interface, open Settings → AI Settings → Connection and enter the address in Server URL. Values set this way are stored in your browser and applied per generation request (unless the server was started with --disable-custom-env-vars).

The Connection fields apply to whichever source is selected: Server URL is an alternate API endpoint for openai/anthropic or the Ollama server for ollama, and API Key supplies your key for the cloud sources. Use the Test Connection button to verify the settings with a real round trip before generating — it reports exactly what is wrong (missing key, unreachable server, model not pulled) on failure.

Note: AI Source is a dropdown offering openai, anthropic, and ollama, plus "Server default", which defers to the source configured on the server (TalkPipe configuration).

Other OpenAI-compatible servers (LM Studio, vLLM, llama.cpp's server, a corporate gateway): choose openai as the source, put the server's base URL in Server URL (usually ending in /v1, e.g. http://localhost:1234/v1), and set API Key to whatever it expects — any non-empty value if it does not check one. Nothing in the application is specific to Ollama beyond its address; the same document works against any of these once the source and model are switched in AI Settings.

Server default (administrators): to give every account a working model without each user visiting AI Settings, set TalkPipe's default source and model in the server's environment before starting it — users who leave AI Source on "Server default" and Model blank then use it:

export TALKPIPE_DEFAULT_MODEL_SOURCE=ollama
export TALKPIPE_DEFAULT_MODEL_NAME=llama3.1:8b
export TALKPIPE_OLLAMA_SERVER_URL="http://your-ollama-host:11434"   # if not local
writing-assistant --host 0.0.0.0 --disable-custom-env-vars

The same keys can go in ~/.talkpipe.toml (default_model_source = "ollama", default_model_name = "llama3.1:8b") of the account running the server; environment variables override the file. Test Connection with the Server-default source reports which model the server resolved. Any source or model a user picks in AI Settings takes precedence over the default.

4. Start Writing!

1. After logging in, the editor opens directly — add a title and start typing. Leave a blank line between sections (paragraphs).
2. Place your cursor in a section, then click one of the generation buttons below the editor — Ideas, Rewrite, Improve, or Proofread — to create AI-assisted content for that section.
3. When you like a suggestion, click "← Use This Text" to replace the section with it.
4. Save your work via the File ▾ menu (File → Save); the File menu also offers Save As, Open, snapshots, and import/export.

That's it! You're ready to use the AI writing assistant.

Terminal interface (TUI)

Everything the web interface does is also available from a terminal, for places where a browser is not an option (an SSH session, a tmux window, a headless box). The TUI is a client of the same server, so it shares your account, documents, snapshots, and settings with the web UI.

# 1. Start the server (in another terminal, tmux pane, or as a service)
writing-assistant

# 2. Open the terminal interface
writing-assistant-tui

Keeping the server running. The server must outlive the terminal you started it in. On a headless or SSH-only machine the simplest way is a tmux session (tmux new -d -s writing-assistant writing-assistant; reattach with tmux attach -t writing-assistant). To have it start at login and restart on failure, install it as a systemd user service — put the following in ~/.config/systemd/user/writing-assistant.service (adjust the venv path and add any Environment= lines you need, e.g. TALKPIPE_OLLAMA_SERVER_URL), then systemctl --user enable --now writing-assistant:

[Unit]
Description=TalkPipe Writing Assistant server

[Service]
ExecStart=%h/.venv/bin/writing-assistant
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Run loginctl enable-linger $USER once if the service should also run while you are not logged in. The container images in CONTAINER_DEPLOYMENT.md are the other option.

Log in (or choose Create an account) on the first screen — the server URL defaults to http://localhost:8001; pass --server http://host:port or set WRITING_ASSISTANT_TUI_SERVER if the server runs on another machine or port (for example after writing-assistant --port 8080). The editor then works like the web one: a title field, the document (leave a blank line between sections), and a suggestion panel that follows the section under the cursor. The cursor starts in the document body, so type your text straight away; press Shift+Tab to reach the title field above it.

Before asking for suggestions, tell the TUI which model to use: press F3, press F3 again to switch to the AI Settings tab (or Left/Right with the tab bar focused), choose the AI source (Enter opens the dropdown) and enter a model name (see Configure AI Backend; if Ollama runs on another machine, put its address in Server URL on the same tab, or start the server with TALKPIPE_OLLAMA_SERVER_URL), press Test Connection, then Save AI Settings. The choice is stored with your account, so the web interface uses it too. If the administrator configured a server default, leave the source on "Server default" and the model blank — Test Connection shows which model the server resolves.

The editor works down to 60x16 (smaller than that, it says so). Below 22 rows the mode buttons are hidden so the suggestion panel stays on screen (F5–F8 and Ctrl+U still work), and below 90 columns the buttons use short labels. If a suggestion comes back as several paragraphs, Use This Text inserts them as several sections and puts the cursor on the first.

The login token is remembered in ~/.writing_assistant/tui_session.json (mode 600; set WRITING_ASSISTANT_TUI_HOME to move it), so the next launch skips the login screen and reopens the last document at the section you were working on. writing-assistant-tui --logout forgets the saved session and starts at the login screen. Import/Export use the same JSON document format as the web UI, so files move between the two freely: Export writes that JSON to the path you give (the default is the document's library name in the directory you started the TUI from), and the text itself is the file's content field — for plain text, use Copy document to clipboard in the File menu.

Usage

Starting the Server

# Default: http://localhost:8001
writing-assistant

# Custom port
writing-assistant --port 8080

# Custom host and port (0.0.0.0 accepts connections from other machines;
# the banner then shows this machine's name in the URLs)
writing-assistant --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080

# Enable auto-reload for development
writing-assistant --reload

# Custom database location
writing-assistant --db-path /path/to/database.db

# Disable custom environment variables from UI (security)
writing-assistant --disable-custom-env-vars

# Initialize database without starting server
writing-assistant --init-db

# You can also use environment variables
WRITING_ASSISTANT_PORT=8080 writing-assistant
WRITING_ASSISTANT_RELOAD=true writing-assistant
WRITING_ASSISTANT_DB_PATH=/path/to/database.db writing-assistant

When the server starts, it will display:

• The URL to access the application
• Registration and login URLs
• API documentation URL
• Database location

Authentication: The application uses JWT-based multi-user authentication with FastAPI Users. Each user has their own account with secure password storage. New users can register through the web interface at /register, and existing users log in at /login.

Environment Variables

Configure the application with these environment variables:

Security Options:

• --disable-custom-env-vars (or ALLOW_CUSTOM_ENV_VARS=false): Prevents users from configuring environment variables through the browser interface
  • Use this for shared deployments or when you want centralized credential management
  • Environment variables must be set at the server level (via shell environment) — see the server default above for choosing the model centrally as well
  • The Connection (Server URL, API Key) and Environment Variables fields are hidden in both the web and terminal interfaces; the startup banner notes that the switch is on

Configure document metadata:

• AI Source: openai, anthropic, or ollama
• Model: e.g., gpt-4, claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022, or llama3.1:8b
• Writing style: formal, casual, technical, etc.
• Target audience: general public, experts, students, etc.
• Tone: neutral, persuasive, informative, etc.
• Word limit: approximate words per paragraph

Document Storage

Documents are stored in an SQLite database with multi-user isolation:

Default Location: ~/.writing_assistant/writing_assistant.db

Custom Location: Use --db-path or WRITING_ASSISTANT_DB_PATH to specify an alternative location

Features:

• Per-user document isolation (users only see their own documents)
• Snapshots on demand (File → Create snapshot); the 10 most recent are kept per document
• User-specific preferences (AI settings, writing style, etc.)
• Cascade deletion (removing a user deletes all their documents)

Backup: Simply copy the database file to create a backup. The database can be moved to a different location using the --db-path option.

Administration

Two console commands are installed alongside the application for user management:

# Create the first admin (superuser) account
writing-assistant-create-superuser

# Manage users (list, info, delete, reset-password, toggle-active, make-superuser)
writing-assistant-admin list
writing-assistant-admin help

See the Admin Guide for the full user-administration reference and the Container Deployment Guide for running these commands inside a container.

Architecture

Package Structure

src/writing_assistant/
├── __init__.py          # Package initialization and version
├── core/                # Core business logic
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── callbacks.py     # AI text generation functionality
│   ├── definitions.py   # Data models (Metadata)
│   └── segments.py      # TalkPipe segment registration
├── app/                 # Web application
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── main.py          # FastAPI application and API endpoints
│   ├── server.py        # Application entry point
│   ├── static/          # CSS and JavaScript assets
│   └── templates/       # Jinja2 HTML templates
└── tui/                 # Terminal interface (Textual), a client of the REST API
    ├── app.py           # Screens, dialogs, key bindings; `writing-assistant-tui`
    ├── app.tcss         # Styling
    ├── client.py        # Async HTTP client for the server's API
    ├── sections.py      # Section parsing / suggestion tracking (mirrors script.js)
    └── session.py       # Saved server URL, token, last document

Core Components

• Metadata: Configuration for writing style, audience, tone, and AI settings
• Section: Individual document sections with async text generation and queuing
• Document: Complete document with sections, metadata, and snapshot management
• Callbacks: AI text generation using TalkPipe with context-aware prompting

Customizing Generation

The prompt templates and the four generation modes (rewrite, improve, proofread, ideas) live in src/writing_assistant/core/callbacks.py, built on TalkPipe's LLMPrompt segment. To change how text is generated — adjust the prompts or swap in a different TalkPipe pipeline — edit that module and reinstall (pip install -e . from a checkout). To add a whole new mode you also need to add its button to the web UI: the mode buttons are defined in src/writing_assistant/app/templates/index.html (the .mode-btn elements) and sent by src/writing_assistant/app/static/script.js — and to the TUI, in GENERATION_MODES in src/writing_assistant/tui/app.py. Register the mode's name in GENERATION_MODES in callbacks.py and give it a branch in get_system_prompt(): the server rejects a mode it does not know with a 400 rather than quietly answering with another mode's prompt. Any backend with an OpenAI-, Anthropic-, or Ollama-compatible endpoint works; point the provider API key / base URL settings (or TALKPIPE_OLLAMA_SERVER_URL for Ollama) at your endpoint and select the source/model in Settings → AI Settings.

Troubleshooting

Application Issues

"Port already in use"

• Change the port: writing-assistant --port 8080
• Or kill the process using the port

"Cannot save document" or "Database error"

• Check write permissions to the database directory (default: ~/.writing_assistant/)
• Ensure the directory exists: mkdir -p ~/.writing_assistant
• Try a different database location: writing-assistant --db-path /tmp/test.db
• Initialize the database manually: writing-assistant --init-db

"Authentication failed" or "Invalid credentials"

• Double-check your email and password
• Register a new account if you haven't already
• The database may have been reset - check the database location

"Cannot connect to database"

• Verify the database file exists and is not corrupted
• Check file permissions on the database file
• Try initializing a new database: writing-assistant --db-path /tmp/new.db --init-db

Releasing

The release process — tag conventions, the manual application test that must pass before tagging, and the publish steps — is in RELEASING.md.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

Built with TalkPipe, a flexible framework for AI pipeline construction developed at Sandia National Laboratories.