What it is

A Linux-first AI chat app that can act on your computer through a small set of built-in tools, available as both a desktop app and a CLI. Bring your own API key (Anthropic, OpenAI, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including a local one).

• Desktop app — Tauri 2 (Rust) + Svelte 5. Tiny, fast, native WebKitGTK.
• CLI (lai) — one-shot prompts, stdin piping, and an interactive chat REPL.
• Shared Rust core (la-core) — both front ends use the exact same engine: multi-provider streaming, tool execution, approval gating, and local history.

Core philosophy

1. We are not competing in the agentic coding realm.
2. This will always be free, open software with no paid subscription tiers or locked features.
3. This is not a local-AI monolith for running every niche local LLM.

It's an app for integrating AI intelligence into your Linux computer.

Built-in tools

Tool	Risk	What it does
system_info	read-only	OS, kernel, CPU, memory, disk usage
read_file	read-only	Read a text file (within allowed roots)
list_dir	read-only	List a directory
search_files	read-only	Recursive name/content search
write_file	mutating	Create/overwrite a file (needs approval)
run_shell	mutating	Run a shell command (needs approval)
open	mutating	Open a file/URL with xdg-open (needs approval)

Read-only tools run automatically. Mutating tools require explicit approval (an inline card in the desktop app, a [y/N] prompt in the CLI) unless you enable auto-approve. File access is restricted to configured roots (your home directory by default) and shell commands are screened against a deny-list.

Repository layout

linux-ai/
  crates/
    core/        # la-core: providers, tools, agent loop, SQLite store, config
    cli/         # `lai` binary
  desktop/
    src/         # Svelte 5 + Vite frontend
    src-tauri/   # Tauri 2 Rust app (depends on la-core)
  docs/          # this VitePress site

Next: head to Installation.