Ollama-Buddy V0.5.1 - Session/History/Role Management, Real-Time Token Tracking and More!

[James Dyer] : Mar 07, 2025 : 1439 words
emacs linux 🏷️ emacs 2025

I’ve been a busy little bee in the last few days, so quite a few improvements to ollama-buddy, my Emacs LLM ollama client, they are listed below:

<2025-03-07 Fri> 0.5.1

Added temperature control

  • Implemented temperature control parameter
  • Added menu commands for setting (T), resetting (0)
  • Added keybindings (C-c t/T/0) for quick temperature adjustments
  • Updated header line and prompt displays to show current temperature
  • Included temperature info in welcome screen with usage guidance

This addition gives users fine-grained control over the creativity and randomness of their AI responses through a new temperature variable.

This update adds several convenient ways to control temperature in Ollama-Buddy:

Key Features

  1. Direct Temperature Setting: Use C-c t from the chat buffer or the menu command [T] to set an exact temperature value between 0.0 and 2.0.

  2. Preset Temperatures: Quickly switch between common temperature presets with C-c T from the chat buffer:

    • Precise (0.1) - For factual responses
    • Focused (0.3) - For deterministic, coherent outputs
    • Balanced (0.7) - Default setting
    • Creative (0.9) - For more varied, creative responses

  3. Reset to Default: Return to the default temperature (0.7) with C-c 0 or the menu command [0].

  4. Visual Feedback: The current temperature is displayed in the header line and before each response, so you always know what setting you’re using.

<2025-03-06 Thu> 0.5.0

Implemented session management, so you can now save your conversations and bring them back with the relevant context and chat history!

  • Chat history is now maintained separately for each model
  • Added session new/load/save/delete/list functionality
  • A switch in context can now be achieved by any of the following methods:
    • Loading a previous session
    • Creating a new session
    • Clearing history on the current session
    • Toggling history on and off

Key Benefits

  • More relevant responses when switching between models
  • Prevents context contamination across different models
  • Clearer session management and organization

Key Features

  1. Session Management

With session management, you can now:

  • Save session with ollama-buddy-sessions-save (or through the ollama-buddy-menu) Preserve your current conversation with a custom name

  • Load session with ollama-buddy-sessions-load (or through the ollama-buddy-menu) Return to previous conversations exactly where you left off

  • List all sessions with ollama-buddy-sessions-list (or through the ollama-buddy-menu) View all saved sessions with metadata including timestamps and models used

  • Delete session with ollama-buddy-sessions-delete (or through the ollama-buddy-menu) Clean up sessions you no longer need

  • New session with ollama-buddy-sessions-new (or through the ollama-buddy-menu) Begin a clean slate without losing your saved sessions

  • Menu Commands

The following commands have been added to the ollama-buddy-menu:

  • E New session
  • L Load session
  • S Save session
  • Y List sessions
  • K Delete session

<2025-03-04 Tue> 0.4.1

Added a sparse version of ollama-buddy called ollama-buddy-mini, see the github repository for the elisp file and a description in README-mini.org

<2025-03-03 Mon> 0.4.0

Added conversation history support and navigation functions

  • Implemented conversation history tracking between prompts and responses
  • Added configurable history length limits and visual indicators
  • Created navigation functions to move between prompts/responses in buffer

Key Features

  1. Conversation History

Ollama Buddy now maintains context between your interactions by:

  • Tracking conversation history between prompts and responses
  • Sending previous messages to Ollama for improved contextual responses
  • Displaying a history counter in the status line showing conversation length
  • Providing configurable history length limits to control memory usage

You can control this feature with:

;; Enable/disable conversation history (default: t)
(setq ollama-buddy-history-enabled t)

;; Set maximum conversation pairs to remember (default: 10)
(setq ollama-buddy-max-history-length 10)

;; Show/hide the history counter in the header line (default: t)
(setq ollama-buddy-show-history-indicator t)
  1. Enhanced Navigation

Moving through longer conversations is now much easier with:

  • Navigation functions to jump between prompts using C-c n/p

  • Menu Commands

Three new menu commands have been added:

  • H: Toggle history tracking on/off
  • X: Clear the current conversation history
  • V: View the full conversation history in a dedicated buffer

<2025-03-02 Sun> 0.3.1

Enhanced model colour contrast with themes, allowing ollama-buddy-enable-model-colors to be enabled by default.

<2025-03-01 Sat> 0.3.0

Added real-time token usage tracking and display

  • Introduce variables to track token counts, rates, and usage history
  • Implement real-time token rate updates with a timer
  • Add a function to display token usage statistics in a dedicated buffer
  • Allow toggling of token stats display after responses
  • Integrate token tracking into response processing and status updates
  • Ensure cleanup of timers and tracking variables on completion or cancellation

Key Features

  1. Menu Commands

    The following command has been added to the ollama-buddy-menu:

    • t Show a summary of token model usage stats

<2025-02-28 Fri> 0.2.4

Added model-specific color highlighting

  • Introduce `ollama-buddy-enable-model-colors` (default: nil) to toggle model-based color highlighting.
  • Assign consistent colors to models based on string hashing.
  • Apply colors to model names in the menu, status, headers, and responses.
  • Add `ollama-buddy-toggle-model-colors` command to toggle this feature.

This enhancement aims to improve user experience by visually distinguishing different AI models within the interface.

Note: I am likely to use both colour and color interchangeably in the following text! :)

Key Features

  1. Model-Specific Colors

    • A new customizable variable, ollama-buddy-enable-model-colors, allows users to enable or disable model-specific colors.
    • Colors are generated based on a model’s name using a hashing function that produces consistent and visually distinguishable hues.
    • However there could be an improvement regarding ensuring the contrast is sufficient and hence visibility maintained with differing themes.

  2. Interactive Color Toggle

    • Users can toggle model-specific colors with the command ollama-buddy-toggle-model-colors, providing flexibility in interface customization.

  3. Colored Model Listings

    • Model names are now displayed with their respective colors in various parts of the interface, including:
      • The status line
      • Model selection menus
      • Command definitions
      • Chat history headers

  4. Menu Commands

The following command hashing been added to the ollama-buddy-menu:

  • C Toggle colors

<2025-02-28 Fri> 0.2.3

Added Prompt History Support

  • Prompts are now integrated into the Emacs history mechanism which means they persist across sessions.
  • Use M-p to navigate prompt history, and M-p / M-n within the minibuffer to insert previous prompts.

Key Features

  • Persistent prompt history
  • A new variable, ollama-buddy--prompt-history, now keeps track of past prompts. This means you can quickly recall and reuse previous queries instead of retyping them from scratch.
  • M-p - recall a previous prompt in the buffer which will bring up the minibuffer for prompt history selection.
  • Minibuffer M-p / M-n - Navigate through past prompts when prompted for input.

<2025-02-27 Thu> 0.2.2

Added support for role-based presets

  • Introduced `ollama-buddy-roles-directory` for storing role preset files.
  • Implemented interactive functions to manage roles:
    • `ollama-buddy-roles-switch-role`
    • `ollama-buddy-role-creator-create-new-role`
    • `ollama-buddy-roles-open-directory`
  • Added ability to create and switch between role-specific commands.
  • Updated menu commands to include role management options.

This enhancement allows you to create, switch, and manage role-specific command configurations, which basically generates differing menu layouts and hence command options based on your context, making your workflow more personalized and efficient.

What Are Role-Based Presets?

Roles in Ollama Buddy are essentially profiles tailored to specific tasks. Imagine you’re using Ollama Buddy for:

  • Coding assistance with one set of prompts
  • Creative writing with a different tone and response style
  • Generating Buffy Style Quips - just a fun one!

With this update, you can now create presets for each of these contexts and switch between them seamlessly without manually re-configuring settings every time. On each switch of context and hence role, a new ollama buddy menu will be generated with the associated keybinding attached to the relevant context commands.

Key Features

1. Store Your Custom Roles

A new directory ollama-buddy-roles-directory (defaulting to ~/.emacs.d/ollama-buddy-presets/) now holds your role presets. Each role is saved as an .el file containing predefined commands, shortcuts, and model preferences.

2. Easily Switch Between Roles

With M-x ollama-buddy-roles-switch-role you can pick from available role presets and swap effortlessly between them (or use the menu item from ollama-buddy-menu)

3. Create Custom Roles with Unique Commands

You can now define custom commands for each role with M-x ollama-buddy-role-creator-create-new-role (or the menu item from ollama-buddy-menu)

This interactive function allows you to:

  • Assign menu shortcuts to commands
  • Describe command behaviour
  • Set a default AI model
  • Define a system prompt for guiding responses

Once saved, your new role is ready to load anytime!

4. Open Role Directory in Dired

Need to tweak a role manually? A simple, run M-x ollama-buddy-roles-open-directory or of course also from the ollama-buddy-menu which opens the presets folder in dired, where you can quickly edit, copy, or delete role configurations.

5. Preconfigured presets are available if you’d like to use a ready-made setup.

  • ollama-buddy–preset__buffy.el
  • ollama-buddy–preset__default.el
  • ollama-buddy–preset__developer.el
  • ollama-buddy–preset__janeway.el
  • ollama-buddy–preset__translator.el
  • ollama-buddy–preset__writer.el

If these files are put in the ollama-buddy-roles-directory then the role selection menu will pass through completing-read, and present the following:

{buffy | default | developer | janeway | translator | writer}

With the selection regenerating the ollama-buddy-menu accordingly, and off you go.

6. Menu commands

The following commands have been added to the ollama-buddy-menu:

  • R Switch Role
  • N Create New Role
  • D Open Roles Directory