tinillm 2.5.0

Hardware LLM capability scanner — know what runs on your machine

tinillm

A local-first LLM agent and hardware scanner — chat with your hardware, let it write code.

pipx install tinillm
tinillm

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What it does

tinillm is an interactive agent that runs on your local Ollama models. Type anything at the prompt and it talks to the agent. Type /cmd and it runs a command.

• Chat with tools. The agent can read files, edit code, run bash, and search the web — all gated by a three-tier permission model (read-only / workspace-write / danger-full-access).
• Plan mode. /plan puts the model in a read-only planning pass. Approve the plan and it executes autonomously — no per-command confirmations.
• Hardware-aware. /scan tells you which LLMs fit your machine before you download 30 GB of weights. /models browses real Ollama models with fit analysis.
• Linux sandbox. When bubblewrap is installed, bash calls run in a namespace jail rooted at your workspace.
• Session persistence. Every conversation is written to a JSONL log you can /chat --resume.

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Install

pipx install tinillm     # recommended: isolated per-tool environment
# or
pip install tinillm

Requires Python 3.11+ and a running Ollama server for the agent. Hardware scanning works without Ollama.

Optional on Linux:

apt install bubblewrap   # enables workspace-rooted bash sandbox

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The unified prompt

Everything happens at one prompt. There's no separate "chat mode."

│ refactor agent_chat.py to extract a ChatSession dataclass
⚙  read_file(path='tinillm/run/agent_chat.py')
⚙  write_file(path='tinillm/run/chat_session.py', …)
⚙  edit_file(path='tinillm/run/agent_chat.py', …)
done — extracted ChatSession with create/handle_user_turn/handle_slash.

│ /scan
  LLM Capability Matrix
  ~1B    Perfect   Q8_0     1.9 GB   580 t/s
  ~7B    Perfect   Q6_K     6.2 GB    88 t/s
  ~13B   Perfect   Q5_K_M  10.1 GB    47 t/s

Free text → the agent. /scan, /models, /doctor → Click commands. In-chat commands like /plan, /cost, /rewind, /diff, /tasks operate on the live agent session.

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Commands

Agent

Command	What it does
(type anything)	Send a turn to the agent
/plan	Enter plan mode (read-only); produce a numbered plan that auto-executes on approval
/plan-off	Leave plan mode without executing
/compact	Summarize older turns to free context
/summary	Print a summary without touching history
/rewind [N]	Remove the last N turns
/diff	Show files changed this session
/cost	Token + time usage so far
/tasks	Current agent TODO list
/load <model>	Swap the live model mid-session
/permissions [mode]	View or set permission mode
/chat [--resume ID]	Re-initialise the agent (or resume a session)

Hardware + models

Command	What it does
/scan	Scan hardware and show which LLM sizes fit
/scan --verbose	Include sizes that don't fit
/scan --json	Machine-readable output
/models	Browse real Ollama models with fit analysis
/models --fits-only	Hide models that don't fit
/models --ollama	Show which models are locally installed
/run [tag]	Launch a model directly in Ollama
/suggest --use-case coding	Personalised recommendation

System

Command	What it does
/doctor	Health check (hardware, Ollama, sandbox)
/memory show · /remember · /forget	Persistent per-project memory
/sessions	List resumable chat sessions
/skills	List installed agent skills
/init	Scaffold a TINILLM.md for this repo
/help	List every command
/clear	Clear the terminal
/exit	Quit (Ctrl+D also works)

Tab-completion works on every slash command, subcommand, and flag.

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Plan mode

│ /plan
plan mode ON — read-only. Describe your goal.

│ add a --json flag to the scan command
Plan:
1. read render/scan.py to find the current output path
2. add --json flag in commands.py scan_cmd
3. route to a JSON renderer, gated on the flag
4. add a test in tests/test_scan_cmd.py

plan auto-accepted — executing in workspace-write mode
⚙  read_file(path='tinillm/render/scan.py')
⚙  edit_file(path='tinillm/commands.py', …)
⚙  write_file(path='tinillm/render/scan_json.py', …)
done.

Once the plan is approved, destructive bash and write-tool calls run without confirmation prompts. Autonomy is scoped to the one execution phase — the next user turn gets a fresh confirm-on-destructive policy.

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Permissions

Three modes, set per-session:

Mode	Reads	Workspace writes	Shell	Network
read-only	✓	—	—	—
workspace-write (default)	✓	✓	confirm on destructive	—
danger-full-access	✓	✓	✓	✓

Switch mid-session with /permissions read-only.

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Sandbox

On Linux with bubblewrap installed, every bash call is wrapped with bwrap --unshare-net --bind <workspace> / --ro-bind /usr /usr … — reads are confined to the workspace, writes can't escape it, and network is off by default. sandbox_allow_network=true in .tinillmrc opens it.

macOS / Windows: sandbox is a no-op for now; permission enforcer and workspace resolution still apply.

Check status with /doctor or the welcome panel.

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Configuration

Per-project: .tinillmrc (TOML) in the repo root:

model = "qwen2.5-coder:14b"
permission_mode = "workspace-write"
auto_accept_plan = true
sandbox_enabled = true
sandbox_allow_network = false
allowed_tools = ["read_file", "write_file", "edit_file", "bash"]
denied_tools = []

Per-user: ~/.tinillm/settings.json (written by /load).

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GPU support

Vendor	Detection method
NVIDIA	nvidia-smi → sysfs fallback
AMD	rocm-smi → sysfs fallback
Apple Silicon	system_profiler (unified memory)
Intel Arc	sysfs + lspci
Windows (all)	PowerShell WMI
Any	vulkaninfo last-resort fallback

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Fit levels

Level	Meaning
Perfect	Fits comfortably at Q4_K_M or better with ≥20% headroom
Good	Fits but tightly
Marginal	Only at heavy compression / reduced context, or CPU-only
TooTight	Won't fit under any quantisation

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Versioning

Version	Feature
2.4	Unified REPL · plan autonomy · sandbox surfacing ← current
2.3	Plan mode · auto-accept · session JSONL
2.2	Agent tool calling · three-tier permissions
2.1	Linux bubblewrap sandbox
1.9	Hardware scanning + model runner
1.8	Interactive REPL, slash commands
1.1	First release — hardware scanner

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Part of the tini* family

Tool	What it does
tiniRAG	Privacy-first RAG CLI
tinillm	Local LLM agent + hardware scanner