Chat UI

The built-in Chat UI provides a browser-based interface for chatting with AI directly from within Producer Pal.

Getting Started

1. Enable Chat UI in the Device Interface Main tab
2. Click "Open Chat UI" or navigate to http://localhost:3350/chat
3. If this is your first time using the chat UI, you need to configure which AI to use. See the Settings documentation below
4. Click "Quick Connect" to connect to Ableton Live (this is a shortcut sending "Connect to Ableton" via the message input)

Header Bar

• Status - Shows "Ready" (green) when connected to Ableton
• Provider & Model - Current AI provider and model
• Tools - Number of enabled tools (e.g., "22/22 tools")
• Settings - Open settings dialog
• Restart - Start a new conversation (appears during chat)

Conversations

During conversations, you'll see:

• Your messages - What you typed
• AI responses - Results and suggestions from the AI
• Tool usage - Collapsed indicators when AI uses Producer Pal tools
• AI thinking - Expandable sections showing AI's reasoning process (only appears for some AI models)

Expandable Thoughts

Some AI models output "thoughts". When they do, you can click "Thought about:" sections to see the AI's reasoning process:

Message Input

• Thinking indicator - Shows current thinking mode and randomness (this can be changed in settings)
• Text area - Type your message (Shift+Enter for new line)
• Send - Send your message

Settings

Settings are stored on your computer in your browser's local storage so you don't have to redo the setup every time you use Producer Pal. If entering an AI cloud provider's API key concerns you, use a private browser or clear your settings after use.

For more information about how to configure specific AI providers, see the installation guide for AI with the chat UI.

Connection

The Connection tab is where you choose and configure your AI provider and model:

Configure your AI provider:

• Provider - Choose from Gemini, OpenAI, Mistral, OpenRouter, Ollama (local), LM Studio (local), or Other
• API Key - Your API key (for cloud providers)
• Model - Select a model or enter a custom model name

Local AI settings (Ollama, LM Studio)

Local models, such as those you can run with Ollama, do not require any API keys. Instead, they have a configurable port.

• Port - Local port (default: 11434 for Ollama, 1234 for LM Studio)
• Model - Select from installed models

With Ollama, you almost never need to change this from the default Ollama port (11434) unless you've modified advanced settings for your Ollama installation. Similarly with LM Studio, if you change the port in LM Studio from its default, Producer Pal's chat UI must use the same port.

Other models

Each AI provider supports multiple models and Producer Pal provides some recommended options in the model dropdown box. To use a different model, select "Other...". An additional text input appears where you can enter an arbitrary model id. Consult your AI provider for the models that are currently available.

Custom providers

Producer Pal can work with any AI provider that has an API compatible with OpenAI's chat API. Most providers support this. When setting up a custom provider, you also need to enter the base URL for the provider's API. Consult the provider's documentation to determine the correct setting.

For example, one could use groq.com as follows:

Behavior

The behavior tab lets you control aspects of how the AI behaves:

• Thinking - Control AI thinking effort. The choices and availability of this option depend on the provider selected in the Connection tab
• Show thinking process - Display AI reasoning in chat. If you don't care about this, you can disable it to reduce clutter.
• Randomness - Creativity level (0% = deterministic, 100% = creative)
• Reset to defaults - Restore default behavior settings

Tools

The Tools tab controls which tools are available to the AI when using the chat UI. This is important for reducing context size for local models (when using the Ollama or LM Studio provider). For local models, only enable the tools you need. For state-of-the-art cloud providers (Gemini, OpenAI, etc), you generally want to keep everything enabled to make full use of Producer Pal's capabilities. If you want to prevent the AI from using a specific tool, you can disable it here.

Consult the Features page for more info on what each tool does.

Appearance

The Appearance tab lets you choose between light mode or dark mode, or follow the system settings: