Native Setup

February 11, 2026 · View on GitHub

Running this application natively on your Unix host system is possible but not recommend.
If you simply want to start talking to Assistant Nio, try the super awesome docker setup instead.

Clone the repository

Clone the repository to a path of your choice, e.g. AssistantNio:
If you're looking for a more stable experience, it's recommended to run from the main branch:
```
git clone --branch main <insert URL> AssistantNio
```
If you really want the latest development commits, e.g. to submit PRs, check out the develop branch:
```
git clone --branch develop <insert URL> AssistantNio
```

Dependencies

sudo apt install libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev

Install libolm

You should be able to install libolm
- from your distribution's package manager e.g. apt install libolm3 libolm-dev on Debian/Ubuntu
- manually build it as in build_and_install_libolm.sh

Install Python dependencies

Change in to the root folder of this repository:
```
cd AssistantNio
```

Create and activate a Python 3.10 virtual environment:

virtualenv -p python3.10 env
source env/bin/activate

Install main python dependencies:
```
pip install -r requirements.txt
```
To install all plugin requirements (specified in each plugin's requirements.txt), you may run:
```
find / -iname requirements.txt -exec pip install --prefix="/python-libs" --no-warn-script-location -r {} \;
```
or just install the requirements on the plugin that interest you.

Configuration

Copy the sample configuration file to a new config.yaml file.
```
cp sample.config.yaml data/config/config.yaml
```
Edit the config file. The matrix section must be modified at least.

Now copy all the plugin config files you want to edit into the data/config/ directory:

plugin_name="aichat"
cp plugins/${plugin_name}/${plugin_name}.sample.yaml data/config/${plugin_name}.yaml.test

and edit them accordingly

Running

Starting from the projects root directory, make sure to source your python environment if you haven't already:
```
source ~/env/bin/activate
```
Then simply run the bot with:
```
python main.py
```
By default, the bot will run with the config file at "./data/config/config.yaml" and load all plugins from the plugins-directory. You may optionally specify a different config-file and plugins-directory by running:
```
python main.py [configfile [plugins_directory]]
```
e.g.
```
python main.py myconfig.yaml myplugins
```

Upgrading

Just use the latest state from main:
```
git switch main
git pull
```
In case of changed requirements, repeat "Install Python dependencies".

Enjoy. ;)