v0.22.0
A self-hosted LLM chatbot with persistent per-persona memory, customizable personas, and a roleplay mode. Runs locally; state lives in plain JSON and Markdown files under data/.
Pre-release beta. A Rust (Axum) server you run locally in your browser. A standalone desktop build via Tauri is the next milestone. Internals and on-disk data formats may still change — back up anything you care about. If you want a stable install-and-forget app, wait for the desktop build.
For writers and roleplayers. Build personas as Markdown, switch threads into roleplay mode with per-scene memory, and let each persona build up its own continuity across conversations.
For privacy-conscious users. Runs on your machine. No database, no cloud, no telemetry. All state is readable text on disk.
For tinkerers. Personas are Markdown. Themes are JSON. Rust (Axum + Tera) + HTMX + Alpine, easy to extend.
git clone https://github.com/irvj/liminal-salt.git
cd liminal-salt
cargo run -p liminal-saltOpen http://localhost:8420 and follow the setup wizard.
Requires Rust (stable) and an OpenRouter API key.
- Per-persona memory. Each persona maintains its own evolving notes about you, merged in the background as you talk.
- Roleplay mode. Per-thread scenarios and scene-level memory, with persona memory suppressed in-scene for immersion. Fork any chat thread into a roleplay thread without losing context.
- Context files. Upload documents per-persona or globally; reference local directories to pull in live files without copying them.
- Multi-session. Sessions grouped by persona, pinnable, auto-titled, with drafts saved per thread.
- OpenRouter. Hundreds of models, with per-persona model overrides.
- Themes. Dark and light modes across 16 color themes.
Development is usage-driven, not scheduled. Near-term work focuses on continued improvements to the memory and roleplay systems. The next milestone is a Tauri desktop build so you can run Liminal Salt as a native window instead of in a browser tab.
Liminal Salt is a local application, not a hosted service. You run it on your own machine with your own API key. Running it as a service for other people is outside the project's scope and would make you the operator of whatever you built.
Using Liminal Salt means agreeing to the terms in AGREEMENT.md — short, plain-language, covers age, open source, non-determinism, provider terms, and responsibility for content submitted to and returned from the LLM. The app presents it once during setup.
Working on templates, Tailwind classes, or the vendored JS deps requires Node.js:
npm install
npm run dev # Tailwind watcher + cargo run, concurrentTests: cargo test -p liminal-salt. Conventions and the full dev workflow live in CLAUDE.md.
MIT