COSMIC Ollama Applet

A panel applet for the COSMIC desktop that provides quick access to local AI assistance via Ollama.

Features

• Chat with local Ollama models directly from your panel
• Automatic context gathering:
  • Clipboard - Copied text (Ctrl+C)
  • Selection - Highlighted text (no copy needed)
  • System info - OS, kernel, memory
  • Recent errors - Last 5 journal errors
• Pre-configured as a Pop!_OS/Linux assistant
• Fast responses with GPU acceleration

Requirements

• COSMIC Desktop (Pop!_OS 24.04+ or other COSMIC-enabled distros)
• Ollama installed and running
• wl-clipboard for clipboard integration

Installation

Install Dependencies

# Install Ollama
curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh

# Install clipboard tools
sudo apt install wl-clipboard

# Pull a model (choose one)
ollama pull phi3:mini      # Small, fast (~2GB)
ollama pull llama3.2:3b    # Smarter (~2GB)
ollama pull llama3.2       # Best quality (~4GB)

Build from Source

# Install Rust if needed
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/paul-wade/cosmic-applet-ollama.git
cd cosmic-applet-ollama
cargo build --release

# Install
sudo install -Dm0755 target/release/cosmic-applet-ollama /usr/bin/cosmic-applet-ollama
sudo install -Dm0644 resources/app.desktop /usr/share/applications/com.github.paulwade.cosmic-applet-ollama.desktop

Add to Panel

1. Right-click on your COSMIC panel
2. Select "Add Applet"
3. Find "Ollama Assistant" and add it

Usage

1. Click the applet icon in your panel
2. Type a question or request
3. For context-aware help:
   • Copy text (Ctrl+C) before asking - error messages, config files, code
   • Select text (highlight) - the applet reads primary selection too
4. Recent system errors are automatically included for troubleshooting

Configuration

Settings are stored via cosmic-config at ~/.config/cosmic/com.github.paulwade.cosmic-applet-ollama/v1/.

To change the model or Ollama URL, edit the config file:

# View current config
cat ~/.config/cosmic/com.github.paulwade.cosmic-applet-ollama/v1/model
cat ~/.config/cosmic/com.github.paulwade.cosmic-applet-ollama/v1/ollama_url

# Change model (no rebuild needed)
echo '"mistral:7b"' > ~/.config/cosmic/com.github.paulwade.cosmic-applet-ollama/v1/model

Default values:

• model: llama3.2:3b
• ollama_url: http://localhost:11434/api/chat

Project Structure

src/
├── main.rs      # Entry point
├── app.rs       # COSMIC applet UI and logic
├── ollama.rs    # Ollama API client
├── context.rs   # System context gathering
├── config.rs    # Configuration handling
└── i18n.rs      # Internationalization

Development

# Run with logging
RUST_LOG=debug cargo run

# Check for issues
cargo clippy

# Format code
cargo fmt

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.

License

This project is licensed under the GPL-3.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• System76 for COSMIC desktop and libcosmic
• Ollama for making local LLMs accessible