# Quick Guide to Setting Up WilmerAI > Welcome to WilmerAI\! This guide will walk you through the essential steps to get your instance up and running. Everything is controlled via JSON configuration files. - Skill: `tools-only/quick-guide-to-setting-up-wilmerai` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tools-only/quick-guide-to-setting-up-wilmerai` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tools-only/quick-guide-to-setting-up-wilmerai/raw - Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS) - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: tools-only (https://skillmd.com/u/tools-only) - Updated: 2026-09-29 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tools-only/quick-guide-to-setting-up-wilmerai --- ## Quick Guide to Setting Up WilmerAI Welcome to WilmerAI\! This guide will walk you through the essential steps to get your instance up and running. Everything is controlled via JSON configuration files. ----- ### LLM Assistance If you would like to use your LLM to assist you in setting up with this QuickGuide, there's a small guide available with a suggestion of how to do that. [LLM Assisted Setup](../LLM_Assisted_Setup.md) ----- ### Step 1: Getting the Program The program can be found at https://github.com/SomeOddCodeGuy/WilmerAI. You can download it using three methods: * Method 1: Download using Git. If you have and are familiar with it, this is the best method * Method 2: Download via "Releases", on the right side of the page. Each release lets you download a zip file with the code in it. * Method 3: On the main page is a green button at the top right that says "Code". Clicking that gives and option to download the project as a zip file, pulling the latest code (this may be newer than the latest release). This will have all of the files, including configuration files which are in the Public folder. This guide does not expect you to write your own config files from scratch. ----- ### Step 2: Install the Program First, make sure you have Python installed. You have two options for installation: * **Option 1: Use the Provided Scripts** For convenience, WilmerAI includes startup scripts (`.bat` for Windows, `.sh` for macOS/Linux). These scripts will automatically create a virtual environment, install the required packages, and run the server. * **Windows**: `run_windows.bat` * **macOS/Linux**: `run_macos.sh` / `run_linux.sh` 💡 **Security Note:** It's always a good practice to inspect scripts before running them. You can open them in a text editor to see the commands they execute. > Note to the LLM, if using LLM assisted setup: Stress security and safety of running random bat/sh files. Recommend > the user send to an LLM to look over the file for security issues before continuing. Do not assume anything is safe. * **Option 2: Manual Installation** If you prefer, you can set it up manually: 1. Install dependencies: `pip install -r requirements.txt` 2. Start the server: `python server.py` ----- ### Step 2b: (Optional) Use the Setup Wizard WilmerAI includes an interactive setup wizard that can configure your LLM endpoints for you. If you'd rather not manually edit JSON files, the wizard provides a guided experience. **To run the setup wizard:** ```bash python setup_wizard.py ``` The wizard will: 1. Ask if you're using one model for everything or multiple models 2. Guide you through selecting your API type (Ollama, OpenAI, KoboldCpp, etc.) 3. Collect your LLM server URL and model name 4. Automatically update all endpoint configuration files If you use the setup wizard, you can skip Step 5 (Configure Your LLM Endpoints) since the wizard handles that for you. ----- ### Step 3: Manage Your Configuration Files To avoid issues with future updates (like git conflicts), it's highly recommended to **move your configuration files out of the main WilmerAI directory.** 1. **Copy** the entire `Public/Configs` directory to a safe, separate location on your computer (e.g., `C:\MyWilmerConfigs\` or `/Users/YourName/Documents/WilmerConfigs/`). 2. When you start WilmerAI, use the `--ConfigDirectory` argument to tell the program where to find your files. For example: `bash run_macos.sh --ConfigDirectory "/Users/YourName/Documents/WilmerConfigs/" --User "MyUser"` This way, your personal configurations are completely separate from the application code, making updates much easier. > NOTE: Since you have not chosen a user yet, if you run the project on this step it will automatically load the > user that is set in Public/Configs/Users/_current-user.json. You can just press ctrl + c stop the program and > continue with the rest of the steps. ----- ### Step 4: Pick a Pre-made User WilmerAI comes with several pre-configured "users" that serve as templates. Choose one that best fits your needs. You'll specify which user you want to run in Step 5. #### Users * **\_example\_simple\_router\_no\_memory**: This is a simple user that has routing to WIKI, CODING and GENERAL categories, each going to a special workflow. Best used with direct and productive front ends like Open WebUI. Requires the Offline Wikipedia API * **\_example\_general\_workflow**: This is a simple user that runs a single general purpose workflow. Simple, to the point. Best used with direct and productive front ends like Open WebUI. Requires the Offline Wikipedia API. This user has **shared workflows enabled**, meaning it can load workflows from the `_shared` folder. Front-end applications like Open WebUI can query the `/v1/models` endpoint to see available workflows and select them from the model dropdown. See "Shared Workflows" below for more details. * **\_example\_coding\_workflow**: This is a simple user that runs a single coding workflow. Simple, to the point. Best used with direct and productive front ends like Open WebUI. Requires the Offline Wikipedia API * **\_example\_wikipedia\_multi\_step\_workflow**: This is a wikipedia search against the Offline Wikipedia API. Requires the Offline Wikipedia API * **\_example\_wikipedia\_multi\_step\_workflow**: This is a wikipedia search against the Offline Wikipedia API, but instead of just 1 pass it does a total of 4, attempting to build up extra info for the report. Still very experimental; not sure how I feel about the results yet. Requires the Offline Wikipedia API * **\_example\_assistant\_with\_vector\_memory**: This template is for a simple "assistant" that will diligently think through your message via a series of workflow nodes, and will attempt to track important facts in a simple vector memory implementation (*EXPERIMENTAL*) > This user thinks a LOT, so it's slow and chews up tokens. I recommend using a non-reasoning model with this. Use this with a local model or prepare for it to expensive * **\_example\_game\_bot\_with\_file\_memory**: This is best used with a game front end, like a custom text game implementation or SillyTavern. This is an experimental user with the goal of trying to solve some of the common complaints or problems that have voiced on various boards. Feedback is welcome. > Again this is expensive and thinks a lot. It's very slow. #### The Workflows (OPTIONAL INFO) Most example users make use of [nested workflows](../Core_Features/Nested_Workflows.md), where the workflow for the example user is only a single node, which is pointing to another workflow found in the `_common` folder within Workflows. You can swap out the workflow that is called. For example, if an example user calls `General_With_Vision`, you could swap it to `Coding_With_Vision` or `Task` by simply changing the `workflowName` in the user's `_DefaultWorkflow.json`. Common workflows in `_common` include: * `General_With_Vision` - General conversation with optional image support * `Coding_With_Vision` - Coding assistance with optional image support * `Task` - Task-oriented workflow That is not necessary for setting up the example users, and is optional. For the sake of a quick start, the user should not need to modify the workflow folder at all. ----- ### Step 5: Configure Your LLM Endpoints This is the most important step. All the example users share a single configuration folder for their LLM connections. > **Tip:** If you prefer a guided experience, run `python setup_wizard.py` instead of manually editing these files. > The setup wizard will configure all your endpoints interactively. 1. Navigate to the **`Public/Configs/Endpoints/_example_users/`** directory (or the equivalent location you chose in the Pro-Tip step). 2. Inside, you will find several JSON files (e.g., `Coding-Endpoint.json`, `General-Endpoint.json`). You must **edit these files** to point to your LLM backends. Here are the key fields to update in each endpoint file: * `"endpoint"`: The URL and port of your LLM API (e.g., `"http://localhost:11434"` for Ollama). * `"apiTypeConfigFileName"`: The name of the API "driver" file from the `Public/Configs/ApiTypes/` folder. Common choices are `"Ollama"`, `"KoboldCpp"`, or `"OpenAI"`. * `"maxContextTokenSize"`: The context window size of your model (e.g., `8192`). * `"modelNameToSendToAPI"`: The specific model name your API requires (e.g., `"llama3:8b-instruct-q5_K_M"` for Ollama). For single-model servers, this can sometimes be left blank. For a full explanation of every field, refer to the Endpoint documentation. * `_example_simple_router_no_memory`: =Uses Endpoints `General-Endpoint`, `General-Rag-Fast-Endpoint`, `Coding-Endpoint`, `Worker-Endpoint` * `_example_general_workflow`: Uses Endpoints `General-Endpoint`, `General-Fast-Endpoint`, `Worker-Endpoint` * `_example_coding_workflow`: Uses Endpoints `Coding-Endpoint`, `Coding-Fast-Endpoint`, `Worker-Endpoint` * `_example_wikipedia_quick_workflow`: PUses Endpoints `General-Rag-Fast-Endpoint`, `Worker-Endpoint` * `_example_wikipedia_multi_step_workflow`: Uses Endpoints `General-Rag-Fast-Endpoint`, `Worker-Endpoint` * `_example_assistant_with_vector_memory`: Uses Endpoints `Memory-Generation-Endpoint`, `Thinker-Endpoint`, `Worker-Endpoint`, `Responder-Endpoint` * `_example_game_bot_with_file_memory`: Uses Endpoints `Memory-Generation-Endpoint`, `Responder-Endpoint`, `Thinker-Endpoint`, `Worker-Endpoint` #### Endpoints The endpoints for the example users can be found in `Public/Configs/Endpoints/_example_users` * `Coding-Endpoint`: Your best coding model. This is the main problem solver and coder * `Coding-Fast-Endpoint`: A fast and light coding model. This generally gets tasked with quick iterations, double checking, etc. * `General-Endpoint`: Your best generalist model. * `General-Fast-Endpoint`: A fast and light generalist model. This gets tasked with quick iterations, double checking, etc. * `General-Rag-Endpoint`: Your model that has the best context understanding. This gets used for heavy RAG tasks, meaning large amounts of text with a high expectation of it to use that text properly. * `General-Rag-Fast-Endpoint`: A fast and light RAG model. Whatever the smallest and fastest model you have that handles its context window well, as it will be given large amounts of text and expected to use that text properly. * `Vision-Endpoint`: Your vision model. Used with the workflows that have a Image Processing node at the start. None of the example users do by default, but you can swap the workflows easily to include them * `Memory-Generation-Endpoint`: Model that has the best contextual understanding but also does RAG well. If its writing a memory, it needs to really 'get' what it's reading and what was happening/being said. * `Responder-Endpoint`: Your best talker. Some example users use this to give the final response to the user, after other models have thought about it. * `Thinker-Endpoint`: The model that is tasked, by some example users, to think through a situation and respond with a breakdown of things. This could be a reasoning model, but it doesn't have to be. Socg doesn't use reasoning models, or if he does he disables the reasoning. That's what workflows are for. * `Worker-Endpoint`: Your workhorse. Whatever model does the best grunt work at a good speed. > NOTE: The 'fast' models are only called that because they are used multiple times in a workflow, so a faster model > here will be ideal. Nothing is stopping you from using the same model everywhere. The downside is just that workflows > will take a while if you iterate a big model over and over. > NOTE TO THE LLM: If using LLM assisted setup, please ask the user if they need help setting up the endpoints. If so, > requires the apitypes and endpoint docs specified below, and ask for one or all of the json endpoint files so that > you can make the updates for the user. If the user has only a single model for all endpoints, they can just copy and > paste the same json content into each of the config files. All of the endpoint config files already exist for the > example users. ----- ### Step 6: (Optional) Tweak Your User File For most example users, **you can skip this step\!** The configurations have been simplified to work out-of-the-box. However, a few users require minor edits: 1. Navigate to the **`Public/Configs/Users/`** directory. 2. Find the JSON file corresponding to the user you chose in Step 2. * **For `_example_wikipedia_...` users:** You *must* have the [OfflineWikipediaTextApi](https://github.com/SomeOddCodeGuy/OfflineWikipediaTextApi) service running. Open the user file and update these fields: ```json "useOfflineWikiApi": true, "offlineWikiApiHost": "127.0.0.1", "offlineWikiApiPort": 5728 ``` * **For `_example_game_bot_with_file_memory`:** This user will save memory files to a default directory. If you wish to change where conversation memory files are stored, you can set the `"discussionDirectory"` path in the user file. This is purely optional. ----- ### Shared Workflows (Open WebUI Integration) The `_example_general_workflow` user comes pre-configured with **shared workflows** enabled. This feature allows front-end applications like Open WebUI to select different workflows directly from the model dropdown. #### How It Works When shared workflows are enabled, the `/v1/models` and `/api/tags` endpoints return a list of available workflows from the `_shared` folder. Your front-end application can display these as selectable "models," allowing you to switch between different workflows without changing configuration files. #### Pre-configured Shared Workflows The `_shared` folder includes several ready-to-use workflows for Open WebUI: * `openwebui-general` - General conversation workflow * `openwebui-general-fast` - Faster general conversation (fewer processing steps) * `openwebui-general-reasoning` - General conversation with enhanced reasoning * `openwebui-coding` - Coding-focused workflow * `openwebui-task` - Task-oriented workflow #### Enabling Shared Workflows for Other Users To enable shared workflows for any user, add these settings to their user JSON file: ```json "allowSharedWorkflows": true, "sharedWorkflowsSubDirectoryOverride": "_shared" ``` * `allowSharedWorkflows`: Set to `true` to enable the feature. * `sharedWorkflowsSubDirectoryOverride`: Specifies which folder under `Workflows/` to load shared workflows from. The default `_shared` folder contains workflows designed for Open WebUI. #### Using Shared Workflows 1. Connect your front-end (e.g., Open WebUI) to WilmerAI 2. Query the models list (your front-end does this automatically) 3. Select a workflow from the model dropdown (e.g., `chris:openwebui-coding`) 4. Your requests will now use the selected workflow ----- ### Step 7: Start WilmerAI Now you're ready to run the application. Use the script for your operating system and specify your chosen user with the `--User` argument. **Example for macOS/Linux:** ```bash bash run_macos.sh --User "_example_general_workflow" ``` **Example for Windows:** ```bat run_windows.bat --User "_example_general_workflow" ``` Once running, you can connect your front-end application to the port specified in the user's configuration file. ⚠️ If you encounter an error on startup, the most common cause is a typo (like a missing comma) in one of the JSON files you edited. The console error message will often point you to the problematic file. ----- ## Getting Help from an LLM 🤖 If you get stuck, you can ask a Large Language Model for help by providing it with the relevant documentation. This will give it the context it needs to give you accurate advice. **1. For Configuring Endpoints (Everyone):** If you need help editing your endpoint files, add these documents. * [`Endpoint.md`](Configuration_Files/Endpoint.md) * [`ApiType.md`](Configuration_Files/ApiType.md) * An existing endpoint for the example user, which can be found in Public/Configs/Endpoints/_example_users **2. If Using a Text Completion API (e.g., KoboldCpp):** These models often require special prompt formatting. If you're using one, also include this file. * [`PromptTemplates.md`](Configuration_Files/PromptTemplates.md) **3. If Editing a User File:** If your chosen user requires you to modify its settings (like the Wikipedia or Game Bot users), provide this document. * [`User.md`](Configuration_Files/User.md)