LocalLightChat
“Click here, paste that, press save.” From first login to ComfyUI image generation, web tools, templates, and exporting chats.
1) Quick start (first successful chat)
2) UI tour (what is where)
Left sidebar
Chats + folders. Create folders, search chats, drag & drop chats into folders. Each chat has a menu (rename, clone, export…).
Top header
Model picker + menus. The ⎚ button opens Chat Controls. The ⋮ menu has Settings, Import/Export, Docs, Sign out.
Chat area
Your conversation. Assistant messages can show “Reasoning” (collapsible), attachments (files/images/text), and action buttons (copy, regen…).
Composer
Where you type. Attach files/links/text, toggle web tools (🌐), use voice (if enabled), stop generation, send.
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Send message | Enter |
| New line | Shift + Enter |
| Close menus/modals | Esc |
3) Settings (core setup)
General
Max tool-call iterations controls how many tool calls the AI may chain in one answer before the backend stops it. (Usually only admins change this.)
Users
Update your email, change password. Admins may see user management (create users, permissions).
4) Connections & models
A Connection is where LocalLightChat sends requests (OpenAI-compatible endpoints). Models are loaded from your connections.
5) Chats, folders, templates
Create chats
Sidebar → + New. A fresh chat starts with your selected model and defaults.
Create folders
Sidebar → + Folder. You can nest folders and move them around (drag & drop or menu).
Move chats
Drag a chat onto a folder, or open the chat menu → Move to….
Chat menu actions
Each chat has a menu: Rename, Clone, Save as template, Compress & Clone, Export, Delete.
6) Files, links, and text sources
In the composer, click the + button to attach sources. Attachments appear as chips above the input. You can remove them before sending.
| Type | What it’s for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Files | PDFs, images, docs, sheets, text | Large docs may be truncated to stay within limits. |
| Link | Provide a URL as a source | You can also enable Web tools to let the model fetch pages directly. |
| Text | Paste raw text as a “document” | Great for snippets you don’t want as an upload. |
7) Web tools (Web + Web search)
Web
Lets the model open URLs and read page content (tool: web_read). Useful when you want grounded answers from specific pages.
Web search
Lets the model search via your configured provider (Serper/SearchNGX/Custom). Good for “find sources” tasks.
8) Image generation (OpenAI + ComfyUI)
OpenAI Image API
Fast setup: enter API key + pick model/size/quality. Best if you want “prompt → image” with minimal fuss.
ComfyUI
Power setup: you control the full workflow JSON, and LLC injects prompt/seed/steps/size via bindings. Ideal for custom pipelines.
9) Configure ComfyUI (step-by-step)
Minimal sanity test prompt (copy/paste): Generate an image: a clean studio photo of a black sneaker on a reflective surface, soft rim light, 3:2 composition. If you use ComfyUI: keep it simple and don’t stack 5 different LoRAs in the first test.
10) Voice (dictation + read aloud)
Voice features depend on your settings. There are two separate things: dictation (speech → text) and read aloud (text → speech).
11) Chat Controls (system prompt + advanced params)
System prompt
Defines the “rules” for the assistant in this chat. Think: role, tone, constraints, formatting preferences.
Advanced params
They affect generation behavior (sampling, repetition control, limits, etc.). For an MVP, you can ignore them.
12) Nice extras (Mermaid, HTML preview, message actions)
Message actions
On each message: Edit, Copy, Read aloud, view Stats, Regenerate, Resume (if stopped), and Delete.
Reasoning panel
If a model returns reasoning, you’ll see a “🧠 Reasoning” box. Click the header to expand/collapse.
Mermaid diagrams
If the assistant outputs a ```mermaid block, it renders as a diagram automatically (and you can still copy/download).
HTML/SVG previews
For ```html or SVG code blocks, you can open a preview directly from the code block controls.
Example Mermaid you can try:
```mermaid
graph TD
A[User] -->|sends message| B(LocalLightChat)
B --> C{Tools enabled?}
C -->|Web/Search/Image| D[Tool calls]
C -->|No tools| E[Model only]
D --> F[Answer]
E --> F[Answer]
```
13) Import / Export / Backup
Export all chats (ZIP)
Top-right ⋮ → Export. Downloads all chats as ZIP (JSON inside).
Export one chat
Chat menu → Export → choose OpenAI JSON, JSON, or TXT.
Import (file picker)
Top-right ⋮ → Import, select one or multiple .json exports.
Import (drag & drop)
Drag exported JSON files onto the chat list. Drop onto a folder to import directly into that folder.
Troubleshooting
No working connection (or it can’t list models). Settings → Connections → Test.
Configure Settings → Search (provider + key/base URL). Then enable 🌐 → Web search in the chat.
Increase “Max wait (seconds)”. Also ensure the ComfyUI URL is reachable from the server (not just your laptop).
Bindings wrong, or “Defaults override workflow values” is off (workflow hardcodes values). Auto-detect again, re-test.
Need either text in input or at least one attachment. Also: if a request is generating, send is disabled until it finishes or you press Stop.
Enable in Settings → Voice (“Activate voice in every chat”) and ensure a Voice API key is set.