The Mac‑only app Pico AI Server, unlike tools such as Ollama, does not provide a dedicated CLI client.
This tool fills that gap and offers some additional features.
The released binary is neither notarized nor signed. To use it on a Mac, there are two options:
- Build PicoChat from the sources
- Remove the quarantine flag from the binary
Add the required libraries to your local Go setup.
go get github.com/atotto/clipboard
go get github.com/BurntSushi/toml
go mod tidy
go test ./...
go build
Navigate to the folder containing the binary and enter the following:
sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine ./picochat
Enter the administrator password to confirm. After that, the binary can be started without a warning.
PicoChat uses a raw input mode for entering prompts. This provides a more natural multiline editing experience than the triple-quote (""") approach used by other applications, while still keeping the implementation simple and terminal-friendly.
Users can type or paste as much text as needed for a prompt. Input is submitted by pressing Ctrl+D (End-of-File). This method ensures that pasted text — including blank lines or code blocks — is handled safely without triggering unintended input termination.
Input can be canceled at any time by pressing Esc, which immediately returns the user to the main prompt without sending the text.
Here are a few examples (↵ indicates pressing Enter):
>>> Tell me a joke! [Ctrl]+D
>>> Hello, PicoChat! ↵
How are you today? ↵
↵
[Ctrl]+D ← Send prompt
It's also possible to use PicoChat in scripts via Pipe, e.g.:
echo "Write a Haiku about Cheese" | picochat -quiet
The -quiet argument is optional and suppresses all app messages, so that only the LLM response is displayed.
NOTE: This has been currently tested on macOS only. It might have issues on other platforms.
| ARG | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| -config | Loads a configuration file |
| -history | Loads the specific session |
| -quiet | Suppresses all app messages |
| -version | Shows version number and quits |
PicoChat expects a configuration file. If no specific name is given, it looks for a file named config.toml
The lookup for the configuration file is in the following order:
- Full path is given with the
-configargument. - Environment variable
CONFIG_PATHis set. - Environment variable
XDG_CONFIG_HOMEis set (searches for /picochat). - User home directory (searches for .config/picochat).
- Same folder where the executable is placed.
History files (see below) are always stored in a subdirectory of the PicoChat config folder, e.g. .config/picochat/history.
PicoChat currently supports the following configurable values in the config file:
- link to the core API endpoint (default usually
http://localhost:11434/api). - model name (must be already downloaded!)
- temperature
- top_p
- context size (must be a value between 5 and 100) - this is the number of messages!
- system prompt ("Persona") where a specific skill or background can be specified.
Since Pico AI currently does not report token counts, it is difficult to calculate a proper context size. This may change in the future, but for now the context size is limited by the total number of messages, with the oldest ones being dropped when the limit is reached.
| CMD | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| [Ctrl] + D | Submit multiline input (EOF) |
| [Esc] | Cancel multiline input and return to prompt |
| /copy, /c | Copy the last answer to clipboard |
| /paste, /v | Get clipboard content as user input and send |
| /info | Show system information |
| /message | Show last message again (e.g., after load) |
| /load | Load chat history from a file |
| /save | Save current chat history to a file |
| /list | List available saved history files |
| /models | List (and switch) downloaded models |
| /clear | Clear history and reinitialize with system prompt |
| /set | Set session variables (key=value) |
| /retry | Sends chat history again, but without last answer |
| /bye | Exit the chat |
| /help, /? | Show available commands |
Some commands can have an argument:
Without a filename, an input line appears, where the name can be entered. If the input is omitted (just pressing ENTER), the load process is canceled.
The filename alone is sufficient because the path is predefined (see above). The suffix can be omitted, as it defaults to .chat.
Without a filename, the file is stored with a timestamp as filename, e.g. 2025-05-11_20-26-32.chat.
This command copies the entire last answer to the clipboard but removes the <think> section from reasoning models. If the reasoning should be retained, then /copy think can be used instead.
If /copy code is entered, the first occurrence of a codeblock between ``` will be copied to the clipboard instead, skipping all descriptive text. If no codeblock is found, then the copy command is canceled.
Without an argument, this command lists the available models of the LLM server. If the list of models has been requested at least once, then it's possible to switch to another model by using the index of the list, e.g. /models 3.
Without an argument, the command lists the available parameters and show their current values.
With the optional argument the parameter values can be changed for the current session, e.g., /set top_p=0.3.
These values are not persistent and cannot be saved. For permanent changes, edit the entries in config.toml.
Without the argument, the last entry of the chat history (usually an assistant answer) will be shown.
With one of the possible roles (system, user, assistant), the specific last entry of the chat history can be chosen.
For example, /message user displays the last user question again.
PicoChat supports basic persona handling: it is possible to store different configuration files in the config path, e.g., generic.toml or developer.toml, each with specific system prompts.
This configuration can be loaded using a shortcut, e.g., picochat -config @developer. The path and .toml suffix can be omitted because they are implied by the '@' symbol. PicoChat then starts with the specified configuration file.
Special thanks to the developers of the libraries used in this project:
This project is licensed under the MIT license.
JMK 2025