BOllama

May 15, 2025 · View on GitHub

Simple Ollama TUI

Chat

chat

Local models

models

Running models

chat

Why Bollama?

Bollama is meant to be simple, an easy way to quickly test various ollama models. Most of the other UIs and CLIs I've used were more focused on longer term use of a model than quick testing.

If you need something small and simple then Bollama may be worth a try. Otherwise there are many other options that will probably suit you better.

Installation

There are pre-built binaries for Linux and Windows available on the releases page

Building from source is also straightforward if you have a working haskell environment. (GHC 9.12.2+ and cabal)

Usage

Extract one of the prebuilt binaries from the release archive
Rename to bollama (or bollama.exe on Windows)
Make it executable (Linux)
Run with no arguments

By default you'll start on the Models tab, which shows the list of models available on the local Ollama server.

You'll need to install at least one model to use chat etc. ollama pull <model> is the command to do this.

Usage tips

On the models page

You can press t to use the current model in a temporary chat (opens in the #Temp chat)
You can press n to start a new chat with the current model

New chat

new chat

Enter the chat name, tab to Ok and press enter
You can change the temperature, context and the model to use. Or leave them as is for the defaults

Chats tab

Press Ctrl-s to send the current message
Press Ctrl-c to cancel the current model
Press Ctrl-t to toggle show thinking
Press Ctrl-p to toggle show message statistics

PS tab

Press s to stop the selected model

Global Keys

Ctrl-q => quit application
Ctrl-u => update theme from config file
F1 => help
F2 => Models tab
F3 => Running/PS tab
F4 => Chat tab
F11 => Supported colour names
F12 => Debug log

See the in app help (F1) for more details.

Here is the in app help (F1) as text for reference

NB this is formatted better in the app itself, this is here for reference only

(also note that the config paths will show actual paths when run in the app)

Bollama

Bollama is a simple TUI for Ollama. version: 0.1.0.19 beta

Global Shortcuts

key	action
Ctrl-q	quit application
Ctrl-u	update theme from config file
F1	help
F2	Models tab
F3	Running/PS tab
F4	Chat tab
F11	Supported colour names
F12	Debug log

Tabs

Models

Shows the list of models available in the Ollama server sorted by parameter size. Shows the number of parameters, model size, capabilities, etc where available. You can also add a comment to a model

Model Shortcuts

key	action
c	Edit user comment for the model
*	Set the model as the default for new temp chats
d	Delete the model
/	Filter models
F5	Refresh the model list
t	Use the `#Temp` chat with the selected model
n	Start a new chat with the selected model

PS

Shows the list of running models.

PS Shortcuts

key	action
s	Stop selected model. (Sends a TTL of 0)

Chat

Shows the list of chats.

Chat Shortcuts - global

key	action
F10	Context menu
Ctrl-n	New chat. Start name with `#` for a temporary chat
Ctrl-e	Edit chat name & model
Ctrl-t	Toggle show thinking
Ctrl-p	Toggle show message details
Ctrl-c	Cancel current chat, assuming LLM is streaming a response
PgUp	Scroll chat history up
PgDown	Scroll chat history down
Ctrl-PgUp	Scroll chat history to top
Ctrl-PgDown	Scroll chat history to end

Note that when editing a chat, you may not change from a temp chat to a non-temp chat or vice versa.

Chat Shortcuts - chat input

key	action
Ctrl-s	Send the current message

Chat Shortcuts - chats list

key	action
*	Set as the default chat

Colours

Shows the list of known colour names available for use in the TUI theme See Themes below

Log

Shows the log of events.

Configuration and State

There are two configuration files

theme.csv
config.json

These are stored in /home/$USER/.config/bollama

The bollama state is stored in a sqlite database. This is located at: /home/$USER/.local/state/bollama/bollama.db

Theme

You can change the default theme by creating a file called theme.csv in the Bollama config directory. This is located at /theme.csv

The theme is a CSV file with the following format:


  <name>,<fg>,<bg>,<attr>
  <name>,<fg>,<bg>
  <name>,<fg>

Where:


  <name> is the name of the attribute
  <fg> is the foreground colour name
  <bg> is the background colour name
  <attr> is an optional attribute (bold, dim, reverse, underline)

Attributes are optional, and one one of
- standout
- underline
- reverseVideo
- blink
- dim
- bold
- bright
- italic
- strikethrough
- - means default
colours are either a #hex-code or a name. Known names are show on the Colours tab See https://rich.readthedocs.io/en/stable/appendix/colors.html
true colour is supported if your terminal supports it and has the correct terminfo (e.g TERM=tmux-256color or TERM=xterm-256color and COLORTERM=truecolor). See https://github.com/termstandard/colors

Here is the default theme

--default                    , red                   ,  blue
borderSelectedLabel        , violet                ,  -
chatMsgA                   , black                 ,  #707070
chatMsgB                   , black                 ,  #a0a0a0
chatMsgSelected            , black                 ,  -
chatDefaultMarker          , yellow                ,  -
colHeader                  , deep_sky_blue2        ,  -                   , bold
editAttr                   , black                 ,  grey
editFocusedAttr            , black                 ,  sky_blue1
footer                     , black                 ,  grey
footerMessage              , black                 ,  grey
footerTitle                , white                 ,  black
infoTitle                  , cyan                  ,  -
listAttr                   , white                 ,  grey7
listSelectedAttr           , cornflower_blue       ,  -
listSelectedFocusedAttr    , black                 ,  cornflower_blue
msgError                   , red                   ,  -
msgInfo                    , black                 ,  blue
spinner1                   , light_sky_blue1       ,  -
spinner2                   , deep_pink3            ,  -
tabFooter                  , black                 ,  grey
tabSelected                , black                 ,  cornflower_blue
tabUnselected              , black                 ,  grey
time                       , yellow                ,  -
version                    , yellow                ,  grey
copyText                   , dark_green            ,  #909090

msgDetailBlock             , white                 , black
msgDetailTitle             , green                 , black                , bold
msgDetailText              , tan                   , black

popup                      , -                     ,  -
popupHeader                , dodger_blue1          ,  -
popupButtonOk              , green                 ,  black
popupButtonOkFocused       , black                 ,  green
popupButtonCancel          , red                   ,  black
popupButtonCancelFocused   , black                 ,  red
popupButtonDisabled        , black                 ,  grey35
popupButtonDisabledFocused , black                 ,  grey
popupTableHeader           , deep_pink4            ,  -

popupError                 , black                 ,  red3
popupErrorText             , black                 ,  red3

popupHelp                  , grey                  ,  black
helpH1                     , black                 ,  violet              , bold
helpH2                     , black                 ,  gold3               , bold
helpKeyTitle               , green                 ,  black
helpKeyShortcut            , green                 ,  black
helpKeyAction              , grey                  ,  black

invalidFormInputAttr       , black                 ,  red

radio                      , cornflower_blue       ,  -
radioFocused               , black                 ,  cornflower_blue

accelKey                   , green                 ,  -
accelKeyFocused            , red                   ,  -


-- fileBrowserAttr
-- fileBrowserCurrentDirectoryAttr
-- fileBrowserSelectionInfoAttr
-- fileBrowserSelectedAttr
-- fileBrowserDirectoryAttr
-- fileBrowserBlockDeviceAttr
-- fileBrowserRegularFileAttr
-- fileBrowserCharacterDeviceAttr
-- fileBrowserNamedPipeAttr
-- fileBrowserSymbolicLinkAttr
-- fileBrowserUnixSocketAttr

Config

The config is a JSON file. It looks something like this


{
    "avoid_emojis": false,
    "default_tab": "chat",
    "ollama_url": "http://localhost:11434",
    "allow_mouse": "true",
    "default_export_dir": "/home/user/temp"
}