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Ticca Desktop

A native AI coding assistant with real filesystem access

Features • Installation • Quick Start • AI Providers • Agents • Tools • Themes • Development

Overview

Ticca is a sleek, native desktop application for AI-assisted coding built with Rust and the Iced GUI framework. Unlike browser-based alternatives, Ticca runs locally with direct filesystem access, enabling AI agents to read, write, and execute code in your actual development environment.

Why Ticca?

  • 🔒 Privacy First — Your code stays on your machine. No uploads to third-party servers.
  • ⚡ Native Performance — Built in Rust for speed and low resource usage.
  • 🔧 Real Filesystem Access — AI agents can read, write, edit, and execute files directly.
  • 🤖 Multi-Agent Architecture — Specialized agents for planning, coding, exploration, and skills.
  • 🎨 Beautiful UI — 11 built-in themes including Catppuccin, Dracula, Nord, and more.
  • 🔑 Zero API Keys Required — OAuth authentication for Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini.

Features

🤖 Multi-Agent System

Ticca employs specialized AI agents, each optimized for specific tasks:

Agent Purpose Access Level
Coding Code generation, modification, and execution Full Access
Planning Strategic task breakdown and roadmap creation Read-Only
Explore Fast codebase navigation and search Read-Only
Skills Python-based skill execution for specialized tasks Full Access

Agents can invoke each other, enabling complex workflows like: Planning → Exploration → Implementation → Validation.

🛠️ Native Tool Integration

All tools are implemented in Rust for maximum performance:

File Operations

  • list_files — Directory listing with intelligent filtering (ignores build artifacts, node_modules, etc.)
  • read_file — Read files with optional line-range selection
  • edit_file — Surgical text replacements with diff generation
  • write_file — Create new files
  • delete_file — Remove files with safety confirmations

Search & Analysis

  • grep — Ripgrep-powered regex search across your entire codebase

System Execution

  • execute_shell — Run commands in integrated terminal instances
  • list_processes — View active terminal processes
  • read_process_output — Stream process output
  • kill_process — Terminate running processes

Agent Coordination

  • invoke_agent — Cross-agent communication with isolated message histories
  • todo_read / todo_write — Agent-scoped task management

🎨 Theme System

11 beautiful themes with instant switching:

Dark Themes Light Themes
Dark (default) Light
Dracula Catppuccin Latte
Nord Gruvbox Light
Catppuccin Mocha
Tokyo Night
One Dark
Gruvbox Dark
Zinc

🔌 MCP Support

Connect external tools via the Model Context Protocol. Configure MCP servers in settings to extend Ticca's capabilities with custom tools.

📦 External Tool Management

On-demand downloads for specialized tasks:

  • UV — Fast Python package manager
  • Pandoc — Document conversion
  • Node.js — JavaScript runtime
  • LibreOffice — Document processing (AppImage)

Installation

Pre-built Binaries

Download the latest release for your platform from GitHub Releases.

Platform Download
Linux (x64) ticca-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
macOS (Apple Silicon) ticca-macos-aarch64.dmg
macOS (Intel) ticca-macos-x86_64.dmg
Windows ticca-windows-x86_64.zip

Build from Source

Prerequisites:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/jan/ticca-desktop.git
cd ticca-desktop

# Build in release mode
cargo build --release

# Run the application
./target/release/ticca-app

Linux Dependencies (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt install libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev libvulkan-dev

Linux Dependencies (Fedora):

sudo dnf install libxkbcommon-devel wayland-devel vulkan-loader-devel

Quick Start

1. Launch Ticca

cargo run --release -p ticca-app

Or run the pre-built binary.

2. Connect an AI Provider

Click the settings icon (⚙️) and authenticate with one of:

  • Claude — Anthropic's Claude (recommended)
  • ChatGPT — OpenAI's GPT models
  • Gemini — Google's Gemini models

OAuth flows handle authentication automatically — no API keys required!

3. Open a Project

Use Ctrl+O to open a project directory, or Ticca will use the current working directory.

4. Start Coding

Example prompts to try:

Explore this codebase and explain the architecture

Add input validation to the user registration form

Write tests for the authentication module

Refactor the database queries to use prepared statements

AI Providers

OAuth Authentication (Recommended)

Ticca supports OAuth PKCE flows for major AI providers:

Provider Models Notes
Claude claude-sonnet-4, claude-opus-4, claude-3.5-sonnet Full feature support
ChatGPT gpt-4o, gpt-4-turbo, gpt-3.5-turbo Uses Codex backend
Gemini gemini-2.0-flash, gemini-1.5-pro Cloud Code Assist API

API Key Authentication

For OpenAI-compatible providers, you can also use API keys:

  • OpenAI
  • Groq
  • Mistral
  • Together AI
  • Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint

Configure API keys in Settings → Providers.

Agents

Coding Agent

The primary agent for code implementation. Has full filesystem access and can:

  • Read and analyze existing code
  • Write new files and modify existing ones
  • Execute shell commands
  • Run tests and build scripts
  • Invoke other agents for specialized tasks

Workflow: Reason → Execute → Validate (iterative cycle)

Planning Agent

Strategic planning with read-only access. Perfect for:

  • Breaking down complex features into tasks
  • Analyzing project architecture
  • Creating implementation roadmaps
  • Coordinating multi-agent workflows

Workflow: Project Analysis → Requirement Deconstruction → Technical Specification → Agent Coordination

Explore Agent

Fast, read-only exploration optimized for:

  • Finding files by patterns
  • Searching code with regex
  • Understanding project structure
  • Locating implementations and usages

Use multiple Explore agents in parallel for faster discovery.

Skills Agent

Executes Python-based skills for specialized tasks:

  • Document conversion
  • Data processing
  • Custom automation scripts

Skills are discovered automatically from the skills/ directory.

Tools

File Operations

list_files          List directory contents with smart filtering
read_file           Read file with optional line range
edit_file           Replace text with surgical precision
write_file          Create new files
delete_file         Remove files with confirmation

Search

grep                Ripgrep-powered regex search

System Execution

execute_shell       Run shell commands in UI terminal
list_processes      List active terminal processes
read_process_output Read new output from a process
kill_process        Terminate a running process

Agent Coordination

list_agents         Discover available agents
invoke_agent        Call another agent with isolated history
todo_read           Read agent's task list
todo_write          Update agent's task list

Themes

Switch themes instantly with Ctrl+T or through Settings.

Dark Themes

  • Dark — Clean modern dark theme (default)
  • Dracula — Popular purple-accented theme
  • Nord — Arctic, bluish color palette
  • Catppuccin Mocha — Warm, cozy dark theme
  • Tokyo Night — Inspired by Tokyo's night lights
  • One Dark — Atom's iconic dark theme
  • Gruvbox Dark — Retro groove colors
  • Zinc — Minimal zinc-based palette

Light Themes

  • Light — Clean modern light theme
  • Catppuccin Latte — Warm, cozy light theme
  • Gruvbox Light — Retro groove colors, light variant

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Ctrl+N New conversation
Ctrl+O Open project directory
Ctrl+T Cycle themes
Ctrl+, Open settings
Ctrl+Enter Send message
Escape Cancel current operation
Ctrl+L Clear conversation

Project Architecture

ticca-desktop/
├── crates/
│   ├── ticca-app/          # Desktop GUI application
│   │   ├── src/
│   │   │   ├── app/        # Main application state
│   │   │   ├── views/      # UI components
│   │   │   ├── theme/      # 11 built-in themes
│   │   │   └── widgets/    # Custom Iced widgets
│   │   └── assets/         # Icons and fonts
│   │
│   ├── ticca-core/         # Business logic library
│   │   └── src/
│   │       ├── agents/     # AI agent implementations
│   │       ├── tools/      # Native Rust tools
│   │       ├── llm/        # LLM provider integrations
│   │       ├── config/     # SQLite configuration
│   │       └── session/    # Chat history persistence
│   │
│   └── ticca-oauth/        # OAuth authentication
│       └── src/
│           ├── claude.rs   # Anthropic OAuth
│           ├── chatgpt.rs  # OpenAI OAuth
│           └── gemini.rs   # Google OAuth
│
├── vendor/                 # Vendored dependencies
├── scripts/                # Build and utility scripts
└── docs/                   # Additional documentation

Development

Prerequisites

  • Rust 1.75+ (install via rustup)
  • Platform-specific dependencies (see Installation)

Building

# Debug build
cargo build

# Release build (optimized)
cargo build --release

# Run with logging
RUST_LOG=info cargo run -p ticca-app

Testing

# Run all tests
cargo test

# Run tests for a specific crate
cargo test -p ticca-core

# Run with output
cargo test -- --nocapture

Code Style

  • Follow Rust naming conventions (snake_case for functions/variables, PascalCase for types)
  • Use rustfmt for formatting
  • Run cargo clippy for linting
  • Keep files under 600 lines; refactor if larger

Adding a New Theme

  1. Create a new file in crates/ticca-app/src/theme/ (e.g., my_theme.rs)
  2. Define color constants and implement pub fn theme() -> Theme
  3. Add the variant to AppTheme enum in mod.rs
  4. Add to ALL_THEMES array and implement Display/FromStr

Adding a New Tool

  1. Create the tool in crates/ticca-core/src/tools/
  2. Implement the rig::tool::Tool trait
  3. Register in ToolRegistry::default() in mod.rs
  4. Add to appropriate agent tool sets

Configuration

Configuration is stored in platform-specific directories:

Platform Location
Linux ~/.local/share/ticca/
macOS ~/Library/Application Support/ticca/
Windows %APPDATA%\ticca\

Files

  • config.db — SQLite database for settings and tokens
  • sessions/ — Chat history persistence
  • skills/ — Python skills directory

Troubleshooting

OAuth Login Issues

If the OAuth callback fails:

  1. Ensure no firewall is blocking localhost ports 8000-8010
  2. Try closing other applications that might use these ports
  3. Check the logs with RUST_LOG=debug cargo run -p ticca-app

Linux: FUSE for LibreOffice

LibreOffice is distributed as an AppImage requiring FUSE 2:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install libfuse2

# Fedora
sudo dnf install fuse

See docs/fuse-installation.md for details.

Performance Issues

  • Ensure you're running a release build (cargo build --release)
  • Close unused terminal processes in the System Executions tab
  • Large projects may benefit from .ticcaignore file (same format as .gitignore)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
  5. Open a Pull Request

Guidelines

  • Follow the existing code style
  • Add tests for new functionality
  • Update documentation as needed
  • Keep commits focused and atomic

License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

  • Iced — Cross-platform GUI framework
  • Rig — LLM orchestration library
  • ripgrep — Fast regex search
  • Theme inspirations: Catppuccin, Dracula, Nord, Tokyo Night, One Dark, Gruvbox

Made with ❤️ and 🦀

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Releases 34

v0.25.1 Latest
Dec 26, 2025
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