Assistant as a dedicated Desktop App

Vlad

Asking everyone here - what does the MVP (minimum viable product) of this feature look like?

lobochrome

For me:

EDIT: Oh, and this is primarily macOS. I'm not a super big user of llms on mobile, beyond the quick question to shoot off:

1) Make it an Orion Feature first. Later, decide if it needs a separate App bundle.
2) Hotkey (Opt+Space) triggers Orion to open a new chat with the cursor active in the question field in a special "tab-group" section, similar to Pinned Tabs but expanded beyond just the favicon (ideally allowing nesting as well). In this section, I have all my chat history available as usual.
3) I'm a vertical tab user, and I think this would generally work best with vertical tabs. For horizontal tab users, maybe have assistant "tabs" vertically and regular tabs horizontally.

doskagi

I would prefer this to be separate from Orion: make it a standalone app, please!

danvpeterson

MVP for me would be a simple quick entry window for new chats, and a way to jump from there to the browser for a full experience. There are lots of things I'd love to see added to that, probably first things being file upload and/or a second window that is essentially just the web UI to access all of my conversations but in the app. For me at least, that quick (spotlight-like) entry and answer window would be the thing I would find the most benefit from.

Alternatively, this could be implemented through something like a Raycast extension. That would be enough for quick entry and answers, but not for the additional features down the road.

I would also note that additional features in the desktop app for Translate, and any other LLM features would be really useful!

dps

Assistant Desktop App Advantages (MVP):

Performance:
- The desktop app should feel snappy, especially during loading. It must be noticeably faster than navigating to the Assistant webpage.
Shortcut Integration:
- A keyboard shortcut to quickly interact with the Assistant is essential.
- Optional integration with Raycast would be a nice bonus but isn’t a requirement.
Side Panel Functionality:
- A quick-access side panel for the Assistant would be highly useful.
- Ability to reference the screen with commands like @screen or /screen for context-aware interactions.
- https://kagifeedback.org/d/6137-call-other-consultant-llm-models-within-an-assistant-thread
LLM Scripts & Prompt Library:
- Incorporate LLM scripts or a prompt library for streamlined workflows.
- Allow referencing prompts via shortcuts for efficiency.
- https://kagifeedback.org/d/5725-llm-scripts

RoxyRoxyRoxy

dps Been meaning to write up a few thoughts on a desktop app for a while but haven’t got around to it; all this seems great. Would LOVE Raycast integration especially when they release it for Windows.
Expanding slightly on the performance attribute: I’d assume it’d be an electron app, but it’d be really great if the team could polish it more than the average electron memory hog. Look to projects like Cider, they’ve done a fantastic job at making the app quick and snappy, far above most Electron apps nowadays.

dps

RoxyRoxyRoxy From @Vlad "we do not do electron - only old school native". Performance is an absolute must, so this is encouraging.

RoxyRoxyRoxy

dps That’s good to know, I know Orion isn’t planned for Windows due to a lack of Windows dev, so I assumed at least that version of an assistant app would be Electron.

kurucu

I'll put it out there that if you provide an API, others will no doubt build the apps for you.

For me:

native, or as close as possible (drag and drop text, images and files, integrated, snappy, looks like it belongs, menubar/taskbar launcher)
Global shortcut to launch a quick conversation
integrated with macOS services menu so it works most places without copy/pasting

I had the openAI app, and I miss it. A main part of your workflow being hidden in a browser tab or clunk wrapper is the main bit of friction for me. So maybe the bar's not that high.

Total pivot: I do feel like a general Kagi app could be something to consider. Blur the lines between search, assistant and other enquiries to provide a general smart assistant where others have failed. Mac knows when I'm asking maths/conversions in search and solves for me, or provides a dictionary definition, or web lookup etc. But fails to be smart when I ask a complicated question. I have to separately use Siri for that, and it can't do anything really challenging. Kagi has all the parts, maybe a really basic onboard LLM could route the request to assistant or search based on the query. Like Wolfram alpha-esque?

sharp-ocean

Just want to add a +1 for a Raycast extension, although anything that lets me get to an Assistant prompt with one shortcut would be great.

And I'll echo kurucu above that just providing the API will allow a lot of experimentation.

kagi-our-eden-com

I don't want Windows/Microsoft Copilot.
It would appear to me that Kagi could create a replacement for the feature in Windows without an enormous degree of effort.

A drop in replacement for Copilot on Windows.

Boomkop3

Didn't stardock create this? They focus on windows customization

youngji22

This seems better positioned by something in the open-source community -- if Kagi exposed an API for their assistants.

Boomkop3

youngji22 openAI has their api open, as have other major ditributors. Kagi is just a middle man forwarding calls and sometimes adding a pre-prompt. It would be more efficient, easier, cheaper and effective to talk straight to openAI

youngji22

Yes. But if you are using Kagi for the search experience, you essentially get LLMs for "free."