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The AI Assistant is a built-in conversational AI chat interface powered by Ollama. It runs entirely on your N.O.M.A.D. server — no internet connection is required, and no data is ever sent to an external service. Your conversations stay on your hardware.
The AI Assistant must be installed before you can use it. Enable it during the Easy Setup wizard or install it from Settings → Apps.

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What it can do

Answer questions

Ask about any topic — history, science, practical skills, or current events up to the model’s training cutoff.

Explain concepts

Get plain-language explanations of complex or technical subjects.

Help with writing

Draft, edit, proofread, or reformat text for any purpose.

Brainstorm ideas

Work through problems, generate options, or think out loud with an interactive partner.
When the Knowledge Base is set up, the AI will also automatically reference documents you’ve uploaded when they’re relevant to your question.

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How to access

Open AI Chat from the Command Center home screen, or navigate directly to /chat.

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How to install

1

Open the setup wizard or Apps page

If this is your first time setting up N.O.M.A.D., use the Easy Setup wizard — the AI Assistant is one of the capabilities you can enable on the first step.To install it later, go to Settings → Apps.
2

Install the AI Assistant

Select the AI Assistant and start the installation. N.O.M.A.D. will pull the required Ollama container and configure it automatically.
3

Wait for installation to complete

Installation progress is shown in the Apps page. Once complete, the AI Chat link becomes available from the Command Center home screen.

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GPU acceleration

Local AI inference is computationally intensive. On CPU only, expect roughly 10–15 tokens per second. With an NVIDIA GPU and the NVIDIA Container Toolkit installed, that typically improves to 100+ tokens per second — a 10–20x improvement in response speed.

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How to enable GPU acceleration

1

Install an NVIDIA GPU

If your server does not already have a compatible NVIDIA GPU, install one. More VRAM allows you to run larger, more capable models.
2

Install the NVIDIA Container Toolkit on the host

Follow the official NVIDIA Container Toolkit installation guide on your server’s operating system.
3

Force Reinstall the AI Assistant

Go to Settings → Apps, find the AI Assistant, and click Force Reinstall. N.O.M.A.D. will detect the GPU during reinstallation and configure the AI container to use it. You’ll see “NVIDIA container runtime detected” in the installation progress log.
Run a System Benchmark before and after adding GPU acceleration to see the difference in your NOMAD Score.
If you add or swap a GPU but skip the Force Reinstall step, the AI will continue running on CPU only. Always Force Reinstall after any GPU change.
If a GPU is detected on the host but is not accessible inside the AI container, N.O.M.A.D. will show a warning banner on the System Information and AI Settings pages. Click Fix: Reinstall AI Assistant to resolve it — this recreates the container without affecting your downloaded models.

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Supported models

The AI Assistant supports any model available through Ollama. You can browse, download, and manage models from Settings → Models (/settings/models). The full catalog of available models is listed at ollama.com/library. Model size affects both speed and capability:
  • Smaller models (1B–3B parameters) — fastest responses, good for simple Q&A
  • Mid-size models (7B–8B parameters) — balanced speed and quality, recommended for most use cases
  • Larger models (14B–70B+ parameters) — highest quality, require significantly more RAM and benefit most from GPU acceleration
AI model files range from approximately 1–40GB depending on the model. Plan your storage accordingly.

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Tips for best results

Vague prompts produce vague answers. Instead of “tell me about plants”, try “what vegetables grow well in partial shade in a temperate climate?”. The more context you provide, the more useful the response.
The AI maintains context within a conversation session. If the first response isn’t quite right, ask it to clarify, expand, or approach the topic differently.
If you’re asking about a specific manual, procedure, or document, upload it to the Knowledge Base first. The AI will find and reference relevant sections automatically.
Conversation history is included in each request. For an unrelated topic, starting a fresh session keeps the context clean and improves response quality.
If you need detailed analysis, nuanced writing, or complex reasoning, download and select a larger model. If responses are too slow, switch to a smaller model for day-to-day questions.

Knowledge Base

Upload documents so the AI can reference them when answering your questions.

Apps

Install, manage, and Force Reinstall the AI Assistant from the Apps page.