askimo

Why Askimo?

You shouldn't have to choose between the best AI model, your privacy, and getting real work done.

• One app, every model. Stop juggling browser tabs. Chat with OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Grok, or a local Ollama model, switch in seconds, no copy-pasting.

• Built as a native desktop app. Not a web wrapper. Starts fast, runs lean, and stays responsive even after hours of use and thousands of messages in a single conversation.

• Long conversations that actually work. No crashes, no tab reloads, no lost context. Askimo handles deep, extended sessions the way a real desktop app should.

• Your files stay on your machine. Search and chat with your own documents using local RAG. Nothing is uploaded. Nothing leaves your device.

• More than just chat. Run Python/Bash scripts, chain multi-step AI workflows, and connect MCP tools, all from the same app.

See It in Action

Multi-step AI Plans - fill in a form, get a finished deliverable:

RAG - search and chat with your local files:

Script runner - execute Python, Bash, and JavaScript from chat:

MCP tools - connect any MCP-compatible server:

Quick Start

Download for macOS, Windows, or Linux →

• Install and open Askimo

• Add a provider - paste an API key (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini…) or point it at a running Ollama instance

• Start chatting

Full setup guide →

System Requirements

OS macOS 11+, Windows 10+, Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, Fedora 35+)

Memory 50–300 MB (AI models require additional memory depending on provider)

Disk 250 MB

Features

• Multi-provider - Switch between OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Ollama, LM Studio, LocalAI, Docker AI, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint per session

• Local RAG - Index local folders, files, and web URLs. Hybrid BM25 + vector retrieval with an AI classifier that skips retrieval when the query doesn't need it. Your data never leaves your machine.

• Plans (agentic workflows) - Chain multi-step AI pipelines from a form UI. Each step builds on the previous; progress shown live. Export as PDF or Word. Define your own plans in YAML or generate them by describing your workflow in plain English.

• Skills - Define reusable AI agents as Markdown files and execute them via Gemini CLI or Claude Code. Skills carry a system prompt, run in a sandboxed workspace, stream live activity, and persist a full run history.

• Script runner - Execute Python, Bash, and JavaScript from chat. Python runs in an auto-managed virtualenv with automatic dependency installation.

• MCP tool integration - Connect MCP-compatible servers via stdio or HTTP, scoped globally or per project

• Persistent sessions - Conversations stored in a local SQLite database, restored on restart

• Vision - Attach images to conversations; works with any multimodal model

• CLI - Native binary (GraalVM). Scriptable, automatable, headless-friendly.

• Local telemetry - Token usage, cost estimates, RAG performance per provider. Nothing uploaded.

• i18n - English, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Vietnamese

Beyond Chat: Skills and Plans

Most AI apps stop at a chat box. Askimo goes further with two automation primitives that turn AI from a conversation tool into a work tool.

Skills delegate real work to an agent runtime (Claude Code or Gemini CLI) running directly on your machine. The agent reads and writes your files, runs shell commands, and iterates until the job is done, without you copy-pasting anything. Point it at a codebase, describe the task, and the agent handles the rest. More runtimes are planned.

Plans break complex reasoning into a chain of focused AI steps, each building on the last. Instead of asking a single prompt to research, analyse, and write simultaneously, a Plan assigns each stage its own goal and persona. You fill in a form, click Run, and get a finished deliverable (a report, a cover letter, a blog post) ready to export as PDF or Word.

Skills Plans

Use when The task needs to touch files, run commands, or modify code The task is pure reasoning: text in, polished output out

Runs via Claude Code or Gemini CLI on your machine Askimo's built-in AI, no extra installs

Example "Refactor my API routes to follow REST conventions" "Write a competitor analysis report for my product"

Skills documentation → · Plans documentation →

Supported Providers

Cloud: OpenAI · Anthropic Claude · Google Gemini · xAI Grok

Local: Ollama · LM Studio · LocalAI · Docker AI

Custom: Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint via custom base URL

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• JDK 21+

• Git

git clone https://github.com/haiphucnguyen/askimo.git
cd askimo

# Run the desktop app
./gradlew :desktop:run

# Build native installers
./gradlew :desktop:package

# Build CLI native binary (requires GraalVM)
./gradlew :cli:nativeCompile

Project Structure

Module Description

desktop/ Compose Multiplatform desktop application

desktop-shared/ Shared UI components

cli/ JLine3 REPL + GraalVM native image

shared/ Core: providers, RAG, MCP, memory, tools, database, plans engine, skills & agent runtimes

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development guidelines and DCO requirements, or the Development Getting Started Guide.

Localization

English · 中文 (简体/繁體) · 日本語 · 한국어 · Français · Español · Deutsch · Português · Tiếng Việt

Want to add a language? [Op