Ollama-chat

What’s new in this fork

• Completely redesigned theme — light / dark (prefers-color-scheme + data-theme), new sidebar / composer / messages layout, mobile-responsive. See src/ollama_chat/static/app.css and src/ollama_chat/static/app.js.
• Thinking mode toggle — paw button in composer. Sends {"think": true|false} via startConversation / replyConversation → ChatManager(think=...) → ollama_chat(..., think=...) (src/ollama_chat/ollama.py:43, src/ollama_chat/chat.py:23). Persisted in localStorage (ollama-chat-thinking). Visual state icon-btn thinking-active (src/ollama_chat/static/app.css:777).
• Web search (tool calling) — globe button left of the thinking paw. Sends {"search": true|false}, the back-end hands Ollama two tools (web_search, fetch_page) and runs the tool_calls loop (max 5 rounds per answer) → ChatManager(search=...) → ollama_chat(..., tools=...) (src/ollama_chat/web_tools.py, src/ollama_chat/chat.py). Persisted in localStorage (ollama-chat-websearch), off by default. Active class icon-btn websearch-active; used tools are shown as a collapsible block in the chat.
• File attachments — upload button in composer, up to 10 files per message (selected files accumulate, each chip has a remove button, 3 / 10 counter). Supported: txt, md, docx, png, jpg, jpeg. Text is appended to user message, docx parsed with python-docx, images sent as base64 images (src/ollama_chat/chat.py:67, src/ollama_chat/static/app.js:149). Attached file names are stored on the exchange (ConversationFileRef) and shown as chips above each user message, sending with empty text allowed.
• Markdown viewer (.md preview in chat) — button next to theme toggle in sidebar toolbar. Opens system file picker (accept=".md,.markdown"), reads file with FileReader and renders it inside the chat area via marked + DOMPurify (src/ollama_chat/static/app.js:505, src/ollama_chat/static/app.css:987). Header shows filename + Close preview button, Esc also closes. No upload to server, works offline.
• Reliable rename — Rename in chat menu now updates both sidebar and open header instantly and awaits POST /setConversationTitle before navigation (src/ollama_chat/static/app.js:885, src/ollama_chat/static/ollamaChatConversation.bare:312).
• One-click Windows launch — start.bat / install.bat — install.bat clones to clean folder + creates .venv, start.bat creates .venv if missing and forwards all args to ollama-chat (e.g. start.bat -p 8080).

Ollama Chat is a conversational AI chat client that uses Ollama to interact with local large language models (LLMs) entirely offline. Ideal for AI enthusiasts, developers, or anyone wanting private, offline LLM chats.

Fork: OlegUshakov-pl/ollama-chat — fork of craigahobbs/ollama-chat with a redesigned theme, thinking-mode toggle, and file attachments.

Quick start

Requirements: Ollama running + Python 3.11+ and Git on PATH.

Option A — via install.bat (clean folder, recommended for Windows)

The easiest way for new users — just copy install.bat into an empty folder and run it:

1. Create an empty folder and copy install.bat from this repository into it (or download it).

2. Double-click install.bat (or run install.bat from a console).

   install.bat:1 will clone https://github.com/OlegUshakov-pl/ollama-chat.git into .\ollama-chat (if not already present), create .venv, upgrade pip, and run pip install -e . (includes python-docx for .docx support).

3. Go to the cloned folder and start the server:

   cd ollama-chat
   start.bat

   The app opens at http://127.0.0.1:8080/ , config file is ollama-chat.json in the user’s home directory.

Option B — via start.bat (if you already cloned)

git clone https://github.com/OlegUshakov-pl/ollama-chat.git
cd ollama-chat
start.bat

What start.bat does (start.bat:1):

1. Creates .venv in the project root if missing (python -m venv .venv).
2. Activates the environment and removes stale ~* directories from site-packages.
3. Installs dependencies and the package (pip install -e .) if .venv\Scripts\ollama-chat.exe is not yet present (skips on re-run, works offline).
4. Runs ollama-chat %* — all arguments are forwarded (e.g. start.bat -p 8080 -h 127.0.0.1).

You can also double-click start.bat in File Explorer.

If OLLAMA_HOST is not http://127.0.0.1:11434, set the environment variable before launching — see src/ollama_chat/ollama.py:19.

Ollama-chat