adrianbonpin
05f77fcc7f
The transcript was duplicated across both panes, which was the actual complaint. The left column is now the list of conversations and the right pane is the transcript of the selected one, so the panes show different things. - the open conversation is marked with a check icon and an "Open" tag - each row carries its own transcript as its detail, so moving the selection previews that conversation - conversations are ordered most-recently-updated first, which keeps the one being chatted in at row zero, where Vicinae's selection reset lands - Return now adapts: with text in the search bar it sends, with an empty bar it opens the highlighted conversation (sending an empty prompt was a no-op anyway) - the search bar accessory dropdown is gone. The left column is the conversation switcher now, so the dropdown only duplicated it. Speaker icons in the transcript are not possible, so the labels are plain text. MdImage renders images block-level, centred, and capped at 200px tall, and all three candidate sources were tried in a live probe -- icon://person, a raw icon slug, and a file:// asset path -- and each one fell back to rendering its alt text as a caption. markdown.ts records the reason so nobody retries it blind. Verified on screen: one conversation row with an Open tag and a check icon, the full transcript on the right, and the action bar reading "Open Conversation" while the search bar is empty. typecheck, eslint, 109 tests and vici build all pass.
Lam Agent for Vicinae
Agentic AI chat inside the Vicinae launcher, powered by Ollama.
Hit a global shortcut, type a question, get a streamed answer — without leaving whatever you were doing.
Status: early. Chat, streaming, persistent sessions and the web tools work. Anything that acts on your machine (opening links, clipboard, launching apps) is deliberately not here yet — see Roadmap.
What it does
- Global hotkey, instant input. Bind a shortcut to the chat command and the search bar is focused before you finish the keystroke.
- Streaming answers. Tokens render as they arrive, in a markdown side panel.
- Persistent conversations. Every chat is saved locally and can be reopened later.
- Tools. Lam decides when to call them — current time, location context, web search, and page fetching.
- Chat only. Lam answers questions. It does not touch your files or run commands.
Requirements
- Vicinae with the extension runtime enabled (Node.js 20+ on
PATH) - An Ollama account and API key — create one here
Ollama Cloud is the default. A local Ollama server works too: point Ollama Host at http://localhost:11434. Note that the web tools are a cloud feature and are not available from a local server.
Install
npm install
npm run dev # build + hot reload into a running Vicinae
Or build once:
npm run build
Setup
Setup is two prompts on first launch, then one command you can revisit any time.
- The API key. Vicinae prompts for required preferences before a command runs, so the very first launch asks for your Ollama API key.
- The model. The next prompt asks which model to use — type it exactly, e.g.
deepseek-v4.1-flash:cloudorgpt-oss:120b. Set Up Lam Agentverifies the connection, lists every model your key can actually reach, and copies a model name to the clipboard so you can paste it into preferences.
To change the model later, either edit the Model preference directly, or run Set Up Lam Agent and copy the name of a model you would rather use.
An extension can read preferences but not write them, which is why setup hands you the exact name to paste rather than saving it for you. It also means the model list can never drift out of sync with your account.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
↩ |
Send the message in the search bar |
↩ with an empty bar |
Open the highlighted conversation |
⌘ N |
New chat |
⌘ ⌫ |
Delete a conversation (in Chat Sessions) |
Prompts are single line. An earlier ⌘ ↩ multi-line composer was removed — see Architecture for why a Form.TextArea cannot be laid out cleanly in a launcher. The Tab shortcut went with it: the left column is the conversation switcher now, so an accessory dropdown would only duplicate it.
Suggested global shortcuts
Assign these in Vicinae Settings → Extensions → Lam Agent, or bind them in your compositor/window manager with deeplinks:
vicinae 'vicinae://launch/lam-agent/chat?toggle=true'
# Hyprland
bind = $mainAlt, Space, exec, vicinae 'vicinae://launch/lam-agent/chat?toggle=true'
# niri
Mod+Shift+Space repeat=false { spawn "vicinae" "vicinae://launch/lam-agent/chat?toggle=true"; }
fallbackText pre-fills the prompt, which makes a handy "ask about this" command:
vicinae 'vicinae://launch/lam-agent/chat?fallbackText=summarise%20this'
Commands
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Chat with Lam | The chat surface. Bind this to your global shortcut. |
| Chat Sessions | Browse, reopen, and delete past conversations. |
| Set Up Lam Agent | Verify the connection and list available models. |
Configuration
| Preference | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ollama API Key | — | Required. Stored by Vicinae as a password preference. |
| Model | — | Required. Any model your key can reach. |
| Ollama Host | https://ollama.com |
Set to http://localhost:11434 for a local server. |
| System Prompt | Lam's default | Replaces the built-in prompt entirely. |
| Web Tools | on | Enables web_search and web_fetch. |
| Reasoning Effort | Off | low/medium/high for models that support thinking. |
Tools
Lam calls these on its own when they would improve an answer. All four are read-only.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
get_datetime |
Current local date, time, weekday, timezone, and UTC offset. |
get_location |
Timezone, UTC offset, locale, region, and city. |
web_search |
Searches the web; returns titles, URLs, and snippets. |
web_fetch |
Fetches one page and returns its content as markdown. |
get_location is derived from your device timezone rather than GPS or an IP lookup, so no third-party geolocation service sees your address. Treat it as "which region am I in", not "where am I".
Web search results and fetched pages can be large. Lam truncates them before they reach the model, and gives up after 5 rounds of tool calls rather than looping.
Architecture
src/
chat.tsx # "chat" command entrypoint — thin wrapper
sessions.tsx # browse, reopen, delete conversations
setup.tsx # connection check + live model list
lib/
ollama.ts # the only file that talks HTTP
agent.ts # the tool-calling loop
tools.ts # tool schemas + dispatch
sessions.ts # LocalStorage persistence
history.ts # turns -> API messages
location.ts # time/place, derived locally
thread.ts # turns -> flat message list
markdown.ts # messages -> detail-panel markdown
preferences.ts # preferences, normalised
hooks/useChat.ts # the chat state machine
components/ChatView.tsx # the chat surface
A few decisions worth knowing about before you change things:
The search bar is the composer. It is the only always-focused text input in a List, which is what makes "hotkey, then just type" work. It is single-line and there is no API to change that. A multi-line Form.TextArea composer was built and then removed: Vicinae always renders it inside FormField, which reserves two ninths of the width for a label gutter and two ninths as an empty right spacer, so it shows up as a small box floating in a large empty form. filtering is off, because the left column is a conversation switcher — the builtin fuzzy filter would hide rows as you type a question.
The two panes show different things on purpose. Left is the list of conversations; right is the transcript of one. Both are required rather than a layout preference: Detail accepts no typed input (onSearchTextChange exists only on List, Grid, Form and Dropdown), and list rows are a fixed single line, so full message text cannot render in the list. Input needs a List; full text needs a Detail.
Return adapts to the search bar. With text in it, ↩ sends. Empty — where sending would be a no-op anyway — ↩ opens the highlighted conversation. Every row carries that conversation's transcript as its detail, so moving the selection previews it.
Conversations are ordered most-recently-updated first. Vicinae resets list selection to the first row on every model change (GenericListView.selectFirstOnReset), and streaming changes the model on every flush. Ordering by recency keeps the conversation being chatted in at row zero, which is where the selection lands.
The transcript is text-only. Speaker labels are plain You / Lam, with the question dimmed as a blockquote and the answer as body text. Icons are not possible there: MdImage renders images block-level, centred, and capped at 200px tall, and every candidate source was tried — icon://person, a raw icon slug, and a file:// asset path — and each fell back to rendering its alt text as a caption.
Streamed deltas are buffered in refs and flushed to state on a timer (FLUSH_INTERVAL_MS). Re-rendering the transcript per token makes the launcher visibly janky.
The logic layer has no Vicinae imports. agent.ts, ollama.ts, tools.ts and friends are plain TypeScript, which is why they unit test without a runtime. A test enforces this.
Sessions are capped twice over — per turn and per session — because LocalStorage has no documented ceiling.
Development
npm run dev # watch + reload
npm run typecheck
npm run lint:code
npm test
vicinae-env.d.ts is generated by the toolchain and gitignored; src/lib/preferences.ts declares the preference shape by hand so the logic layer needs no codegen step.
Roadmap
- Actions. Opening links, clipboard access, launching apps. These need an approval step first — an assistant that can silently act on your machine is a different risk profile from one that answers questions, and this release does not pretend otherwise.
@mentions for files and clipboard content.- Per-conversation model overrides.
- Image input, which Ollama's chat API already supports.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.