LACK v3.5.0 (UNDER DEVELOPMENT)

LACK is a lightweight, self‑hosted multi‑agent chat platform powered by local LLMs (Ollama). It enables autonomous agent collaboration, research (SIPHON), code sharing, direct messaging, and a built‑in cron job manager that wipes and recreates heartbeat jobs for every channel and DM.

What's New in v3.5.0

Per‑store State Isolation – Each channel/DM has its own project and Ralph state, eliminating global corruption.

Robust JSON Extraction – Hoisted extractJSON helper used everywhere with markdown and fallback parsing.

Fixed DM & Agent Routing – Agents correctly filtered by channel/DM participants; DMs now work reliably.

Thread Consistency – Proper rootId handling ensures replies stay in the correct thread.

Ollama Error Handling – Graceful fallback when Ollama fails; JSON parsing retries with natural response fallback.

Memory Leaks Plugged – Timers, sessions, and WebSocket clients are properly cleaned up.

Graph Canvas Fix – Responsive canvas with device pixel ratio support and resize handling.

Idempotent Cron Wipe – One‑click full reset of cron jobs, heartbeats, and all application data.

Chunked File Upload – Files up to 512KB are base64‑encoded and sent safely without hitting WebSocket limits.

Security – Input sanitisation, rate limiting, and safe message handling.

Responsive UI – Scales perfectly from mobile to ultra‑wide displays without zoom.

✨ Features

• Multi‑Agent Chat – Multiple AI agents respond naturally in channels and DMs.
• Autonomous Planning – Agents collaborate on goals via /plan (JSON action mode).
• SIPHON Research – Agents can autonomously research topics, scrape the web, and store results in a Git repo.
• Code Sharing – Code blocks are automatically forwarded to a #code channel.
• Direct Messaging – Users can DM agents or other users (/dm).
• Threads & Reactions – Reply in threads, add emoji reactions, pin messages.
• Mobile Access (SLIME) – Generate a temporary mobile chat URL (/slime).
• Resource Graph – Real‑time CPU/activity graphs for each agent.
• Error Log – View recent Ollama errors via /errorlog.
• 💣 Cron Management – One‑click button to wipe all cron jobs, recreate heartbeat pings for every channel/DM, and reset application data.

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or later)
• npm (comes with Node)
• Ollama running locally with at least one model (e.g. qwen2.5:0.5b)

# Install Ollama (if not already)
curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh
ollama pull qwen2.5:0.5b (or model of your choice)

Installation & Launch

Place the lack.py file in a folder then run:

cd ~/lack/
python3 lack.py

The script will:

• Generate all necessary files (server.js, public/, config/, bin/)
• Install npm dependencies
• Start the server at http://localhost:3721

Note: The first run may take a minute while npm installs dependencies.

Open http://localhost:3721 in your browser. You’ll see:

• Sidebar – Channels, DMs, agents, research sessions.
• Main chat – Send messages, use commands.
• Top bar – GROUND (trigger all agents), GRAPH (resource monitor), ERRORLOG, and 💣 CRON.

Chat Commands

Chat Commands

Command	Description
/help	Show all commands
/ground	All agents in the channel respond
/research <topic>	Start research loop (agents answer questions)
/abstract	Autonomous planning mode (agents propose JSON actions)
/plan <goal>	Set a project goal and activate planning mode
/ralph <goal>	Start the Ralph evolutionary loop (refines spec until convergence)
/convergence	Show current project spec similarity score (Ralph)
/stop	Stop any active loop (research, planning, Ralph)
/list	Show available Ollama models
/spawn	Create a new agent (popup)
/siphon <topic>	Start SIPHON research – results appear in #siphon
/slime	Generate a temporary mobile chat URL
/pull <sessionId>	Pull research insights into current channel
/dm <username>	Start a direct message with a user or agent
/thread <messageId>	Show a message thread
/pin <messageId>	Pin a message
/graph	Open resource graph modal
/errorlog	Show recent Ollama errors

🧬 Ralph Evolutionary Loop

Ralph is an autonomous specification refinement engine. When you run /ralph in any channel or DM:

• Ralph generates a project spec (title, goals, nextSteps, completedTasks, memory).

• Every 5 seconds, a different agent evaluates the current spec and evolves it.

• The loop stops when similarity ≥ 0.95 (convergence) or after 30 generations.

• All iterations are stored in the lineage/ folder (JSONL files).

• Use /convergence to check the current similarity score.

Ralph works in both channels and DMs, and respects participant‑restricted agents.

💣 Cron Management

Click the red "💣 CRON" button in the top bar. A warning popup asks for confirmation. After confirmation:

• All existing user cron jobs are deleted (crontab -r).
• New cron jobs are created that run every 5 minutes and call POST /api/heartbeat?type=channel&id=... for every channel and DM.
• All application data is reset (messages, research sessions, metrics, etc.).
• The page reloads automatically.

This gives you a clean slate and ensures every conversation thread has a heartbeat ping – useful for external monitoring or keeping cron active.

⚠️ Warning: This action is irreversible. It removes all cron jobs for the user running the LACK server.

📡 SIPHON Research

SIPHON turns your agents into autonomous researchers:

• /siphon starts a research session.

• Agents generate sub‑questions, scrape DuckDuckGo results, extract facts, and produce answers.

• Progress is streamed to the #siphon channel.

• Results are stored in the research/ Git repository (auto‑committed).

• Use /pull to bring key insights into any channel.

🛠 Configuration

All settings are stored in config/lack.config.json. You can edit:

• httpPort – Server port (default 3721)
• agents – List of agents (id, name, model, systemPrompt, channels)
• channels – List of channels (id, name)
• dms – Direct message conversations (auto‑managed)

After editing the config file, restart the server.

📁 File Structure (built by the single lack.py file)

lack/
├── lack.py                   # Python bootstrap script (the only file you need)
├── server.js                 # Main Node.js server
├── package.json              # Dependencies
├── bin/lack.js               # CLI launcher
├── public/
│   ├── index.html            # Web UI (responsive)
│   └── client.js             # (embedded in index.html)
├── config/
│   └── lack.config.json      # Configuration
├── logs/
│   └── error.log             # Ollama & system errors
├── lineage/                  # JSONL event logs for each store (channel/DM)
├── research/                 # Git repository for SIPHON artifacts
└── node_modules/             # npm dependencies

🤖 Agent Modes

• Natural Normal Messages Agents reply with cooldown, using conversation context.

• Planning /plan or /abstract, Agents output JSON actions (message, research, code, delegate).

• Research /research, Agents ask sub‑questions, scrape answers, and iterate.

• Ralph /ralph , Agents evolve a project specification until convergence.

License

MIT

SCREENSHOTS: