lazyllama 0.5.2

LazyLlama is a lightweight, fast Terminal User Interface (TUI) client for Ollama. It is designed for running local AI models with minimal overhead and intuitive, Emacs-inspired controls directly in your terminal.

✨ Features

• Real-time Streaming: Responses are generated live, providing immediate feedback.
• GitHub-Flavored Markdown: Comprehensive support for markdown formatting including bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, headers, lists, task lists, blockquotes, links, and horizontal rules.
• Syntax Highlighting: Code blocks with language tags are automatically syntax-highlighted using syntect with support for 100+ programming languages (Rust, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, C++, Java, and many more).
• Smart Scrolling: * AUTOSCROLL: Automatically follows the AI output.
  • MANUAL SCROLL: Locks the view (🔒) when you use PageUp/Down, allowing you to read previous messages undisturbed.
• Model Management: Easily switch between installed Ollama models using Ctrl+arrow keys with separate input/output buffers per model.
• Smart Buffer Management: Each LLM maintains its own chat history, input text, and scroll position.
• Automatic Logging: Every chat session is automatically saved as a text file in ~/.local/share/lazyllama/ (both combined and per-model histories).
• Performance: Built with Rust and Ratatui for ultra-low latency and minimal resource footprint.

🚀 Installation

From crates.io (Recommended)

cargo install lazyllama

Arch Linux (AUR)

# Source build
yay -S lazyllama

# Pre-built binary
yay -S lazyllama-bin

Flatpak (All Linux Distributions)

flatpak install flathub app.pommersche.LazyLlama
flatpak run app.pommersche.LazyLlama

Windows

Download the latest Windows x64 ZIP from GitHub Releases and extract it to a directory in your PATH.

Note: Ollama must be installed and running separately. Visit ollama.com for installation instructions.

Build from Source

Prerequisites

• Rust (Stable)
• Ollama (must be running in the background)

Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Pommersche92/lazyllama.git
   cd lazyllama
   

2. Install it system-wide:

   cargo install --path .
   

⌨️ Controls

Optional debug:

• LAZYLLAMA_DEBUG_KEYS=1 shows key/scroll/render info in the status bar.

⚙️ Configuration

LazyLlama stores user preferences in a configuration file that persists between sessions.

Settings Dialog

Press Ctrl+O to open the settings dialog where you can customize:

• Syntax Highlighting Theme: Choose from 10 curated themes optimized for both dark and light terminal backgrounds
  • Dark themes: Ocean Dark (default), Monokai, Solarized Dark, Dracula, Nord
  • Light themes: Ocean Light, Solarized Light, GitHub, Monokai Light, Gruvbox Light

Settings are automatically saved when you apply changes and will be restored on the next application start.

Config File Location

Settings are stored in:

• Linux/macOS: ~/.config/lazyllama/settings.toml
• Windows: %APPDATA%\lazyllama\settings.toml

You can manually edit the config file if needed. Example:

[settings]
syntax_theme = "SolarizedDark"

🛠 Project Structure

The project follows a modular design for easy maintainability:

• main.rs: Entry point and terminal event handling.
• app.rs: State management and Ollama API integration.
• ui.rs: Rendering logic and Markdown parsing.
• utils.rs: File system operations and session logging.

📖 Documentation

You can generate the full technical documentation locally:

cargo doc --no-deps --open

🧪 Testing

LazyLlama features a comprehensive test suite with 88 tests covering all functionality:

• Unit Tests: 72 modularized tests for individual components
• Integration Tests: 7 end-to-end tests for component interaction
• Doc Tests: 9 documentation tests (6 active, 3 ignored)
• Performance Benchmarks: Continuous performance monitoring

Running Tests

# Run all tests (unit, integration, doc tests)
cargo test

# Run only unit tests
cargo test --test test_unit

# Run benchmarks with detailed output
cargo test --release --benches -- --nocapture --test-threads=1

Performance Benchmarks

LazyLlama is optimized for ultra-low latency with all operations completing well within the 16ms frame budget for 60 FPS rendering:

Legend: ⚡⚡⚡ < 10 ns | ⚡⚡ < 1 µs | ⚡ < 10 µs | ✅ < 100 µs

Benchmark results from 2 March 2026 · Release build · cargo test --release --benches

All benchmarks run on optimized release builds. Run cargo test --release --benches to execute the full benchmark suite.

For detailed testing information, test structure, and maintenance guidelines, see TESTING.md.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the GPL-2.0-or-later. See the LICENSE file for details.

📝 Changelog

v0.5.2 - April 2026

• 🎨 Windows Icon Embedding: Application icon now properly embedded in Windows executables
  • Added build.rs to compile icon resources into .exe files
  • Icons display correctly in Windows Explorer and taskbar
  • Automatic generation of icon.ico from icon.png during build process
• 🖼️ AppImage Icon Integration: Improved icon handling for AppImage packages
  • Uses project root icon.png for all AppImage builds
  • Fallback to generated placeholder if icon is missing
  • Better visual identification in application launchers
• 🔧 Build Infrastructure: Enhanced release scripts with icon generation
  • Automatic .ico conversion using ImageMagick before Windows cross-compilation
  • Streamlined icon workflow across all distribution formats
• 📝 GitHub-Flavored Markdown Support: Feature-complete markdown rendering
  • Added pulldown-cmark for standards-compliant markdown parsing
  • Inline formatting: Bold (**text**), italic (*text*), strikethrough (~~text~~), inline code (`code`)
  • Headers: All levels (# to ######) with visual hierarchy
  • Lists: Unordered (-, *, +) and ordered (1., 2., etc.)
  • Task lists: Unchecked (- [ ]) and checked (- [x]) items with visual indicators (☐/☑)
  • Blockquotes: > quote with green styling and italic formatting
  • Horizontal rules: ---, ***, ___ rendered as visual separators
  • Links: [text](url) with blue underlined text (URL hidden in TUI)
  • Preserves existing YOU:/AI: label coloring and code block framing
• 🎨 Syntax Highlighting: Language-aware code block highlighting
  • Added syntect library for professional-grade syntax highlighting
  • Supports 100+ programming languages with accurate tokenization
  • Uses base16-ocean.dark theme optimized for terminal readability
  • Automatically detects language from code fence tags (e.g., ```rust, ```python, ```js)
  • Comprehensive language tag mapping: supports common aliases (js→JavaScript, py→Python, rs→Rust, cs→C#, etc.)
  • Highlights keywords, strings, comments, functions, types, and more
  • Preserves code block framing with language labels

v0.5.1 - March 2026

• 🐛 Scroll Fix: Correctly calculate visual scroll height when Wrap is active
  • total_lines is now computed as the sum of wrapped visual rows per logical line
  • Fixes issue where the scroll area ended too early after multiple messages, making the last responses unreachable
  • Auto-scroll now reliably positions at the true bottom of the conversation

v0.5.0 - February 2026

• 📦 GitHub Releases: Automated release pipeline with pre-built binaries for multiple platforms
  • Linux x64 tarballs for easy installation on any distribution
  • Windows x64 ZIP archives with native binaries
  • AppImage packages for universal Linux compatibility
• 🐧 AppImage Support: Portable single-file executables that run on any Linux distribution
  • No installation required - just download and run
  • Includes all dependencies in a self-contained package
• 🪟 Windows Binary Distribution: Official Windows builds available through GitHub Releases
  • Pre-compiled executables for x64 architecture
  • No Rust toolchain required for Windows users
• 📦 AUR Packages: Official Arch Linux User Repository packages
  • lazyllama: Build from source via crates.io
  • lazyllama-bin: Pre-built binary package for faster installation
• 🌐 Website Redesign: Complete overhaul of project website with modern glassmorphism design
  • Responsive layout optimized for all devices
  • Custom typography with Satoshi font
  • Interactive code examples and installation guides
• 🤖 Automated Build Pipeline: Comprehensive release automation scripts
  • One-command release workflow to all platforms
  • Automatic version management and checksums
  • Integrated testing before deployment
• 📚 Documentation Improvements: Enhanced documentation across the project
  • Detailed build script documentation in scripts/README.md
  • Comprehensive testing guide in TESTING.md
  • Updated installation instructions for all platforms
• 🔧 Build Infrastructure: New AppImage build system replacing Flatpak
  • Simplified build process with linuxdeploy
  • Faster compilation and smaller package size
  • Better integration with GitHub release workflow

v0.4.1 - February 2026

• 🔼 Extended Input Height: Input field now expands up to 5 lines (increased from 4)
  • Maximum height: 5 lines, giving more space for longer prompts
• 📍 Smart Cursor Scrolling: Input field automatically scrolls to keep cursor visible
  • When cursor moves beyond visible area, the input scrolls automatically
  • Smooth navigation in long multiline inputs
• ⌨️ Improved Keybindings:
  • Ctrl + ↑ / ↓: Switch between AI models (changed from plain arrow keys)
  • ↑ / ↓: Move cursor up/down between lines in multiline input (new feature)
  • More intuitive navigation in multiline text editing

v0.4.0 - February 2026

• 📏 Dynamic Input Height: Input field now automatically expands from 1 to 5 lines based on content
  • Grows dynamically when pressing Shift+Enter to add newlines
  • Minimum height: 1 line, Maximum height: 5 lines
  • Provides more comfortable editing space for longer prompts
• ✨ Improved Multiline Rendering: Proper line-by-line rendering with selection and cursor support
  • Each line is rendered independently with correct styling
  • Selection highlighting works correctly across multiple lines
  • Cursor position is accurately displayed within multiline text
• 📝 Multiline Input: Press Shift+Enter to insert line breaks in the input field for multiline messages
• ✂️ Text Selection: Select text in the input field using keyboard shortcuts
  • Shift + ← / →: Select text character by character
  • Shift + Ctrl + ← / →: Select text word by word
  • Shift + Home / End: Select from cursor to start/end of input
• 📋 Clipboard Operations: Copy and paste functionality for the input field
  • Ctrl + Shift + C: Copy selected text to clipboard
  • Ctrl + Shift + V: Paste text from clipboard at cursor position
• 🎨 Visual Selection Feedback: Selected text is highlighted with a blue background for clear visibility
• 🔄 Smart Text Insertion: Pasting text automatically replaces any active selection
• 📦 Dependency: Added arboard library for cross-platform clipboard access
• 📦 Dependency Updates: Updated all dependencies to their latest versions
  • ratatui: 0.26 → 0.30.0 (TUI framework with improved frame API)
  • crossterm: 0.27 → 0.29.0 (terminal manipulation library)
  • dirs: 5.0 → 6.0.0 (platform-specific directory paths)
  • tokio-stream: 0.1 → 0.1.18 (async stream utilities)
  • tempfile: 3.8 → 3.25.0 (dev dependency for test file management)
  • tokio-test: 0.4 → 0.4.5 (dev dependency for async testing)
• 🔄 API Migration: Updated code to use frame.area() instead of deprecated frame.size() method
• 🧪 Comprehensive Test Suite: Added 78 tests for robust code quality assurance
  • Unit Tests: 68 modularized tests extracted to separate files for better maintainability
    • App functionality: 33 tests for cursor navigation, model management, text editing, selection, clipboard
    • UI components: 13 tests for markdown parsing, syntax highlighting, text rendering
    • Utilities: 10 tests for filesystem operations, history management
    • Event handling: 12 tests for key combinations, terminal integration
  • Integration Tests: 7 end-to-end tests for component interaction
  • Performance Benchmarks: Continuous monitoring for performance-critical functions
• 🔧 Improved Testability: Made internal functions public for comprehensive unit testing
• 📚 Enhanced Documentation: Updated test documentation and added detailed testing guide

v0.3.0 - February 2026

• 🧹 Clean Chat Redraw: Clears the chat area before rendering to prevent leftover characters when scrolling
• ⌨️ Input Cursor: Horizontal cursor navigation with Left/Right and a blinking caret in the input field
• 🏁 Home/End Navigation: Jump to start/end of the input line
• 🧭 Word-wise Movement: Ctrl+Left/Right moves by words with smart separators
• 🗑 Word Deletion: Ctrl+Backspace deletes previous word, Ctrl+Delete deletes next word
• ⌦ Delete Key Support: Delete removes the character after the cursor
• 🧪 Dev Key Debug Mode: Optional status bar debug via LAZYLLAMA_DEBUG_KEYS=1

v0.2.0 - February 2026

• 🎯 Per-Model Buffer Management: Each LLM now maintains separate input buffers, chat histories, and scroll positions
• 🔄 Smart Model Switching: Ctrl+Arrow keys now seamlessly switch between models while preserving individual states
• 💾 Enhanced Logging: Separate history files are saved for each model on application exit
• 🎨 Improved UI: Model list shows buffer status indicators and current model highlighting
• 🪟 Windows Compatibility: Fixed double character input issue on Windows by filtering key event types
• 📖 Translated Documentation: Documentation in source code AI-translated from german to english
  • Please report any gramatical errors, AI weirdness and/or other inaccuracies in the github issues.

v0.1.0 - Initial Release

• Basic TUI interface for Ollama
• Real-time streaming responses
• Markdown and code highlighting
• Smart scrolling with autoscroll/manual modes
• Model selection and automatic logging

Developed with ❤️ in the black forest.