Not another chatbot. NOVA is a fully local, voice-activated AI system with a cinematic HUD — running on your machine, on your terms.
Just say "Nova" and start talking. No clicks, no typing — it listens the moment you speak.
A stunning glassmorphism overlay rendered by Electron — looks exactly like the movies, runs on your desktop.
Switch between Groq's ultra-fast inference or Google Gemini's massive context window — or run both simultaneously.
Click the NOVA core at any moment to instantly stop a response mid-sentence. Full control, always.
Windows and Linux fully supported. macOS is included but untested (I don't own a Mac) — Mac contributors welcome, see below.
MIT licensed. Fork it, mod it, break it, rebuild it. The source is yours — no black boxes.
NOVA can run on free cloud API keys or completely offline with local models via llama.cpp.
Blazing fast inference using custom LPU hardware. Get responses in under a second, completely free on the standard tier.
→ Get Groq API KeyMassive context window and deep multi-turn reasoning. Ideal for long conversations and complex tasks. Free via AI Studio.
→ Get Gemini API KeyRun NOVA completely offline with local AI models. Auto-detects your hardware and recommends the best model. Download models directly from Hugging Face within the app.
→ Installed During Setup// Gemini is prioritized over Groq when both cloud keys are provided. Local models can be enabled from settings.
Choose your platform and follow the steps. A single script handles everything else.
Pre-built installer is still being worked on — The .exe installer and .zip portable are being added soon but to maintain stablity it's being tested. For now, the script install below takes less than 5 minutes and works on any machine.
Development build warning — NOVA v0.5 is still under active development. Some features may have bugs while the systems are being upgraded.
Option A — Clone with Git:
Option B: Download ZIP archive — extract the folder, open it.
Double-click install_windows.bat and wait for "INSTALLATION COMPLETE!". It sets up your virtual environment, automatically creates the configuration files, and installs all dependencies.
Double-click launch_nova.bat. Once the holographic HUD boots up, you can paste and configure your Groq or Gemini API keys directly inside the settings panel.
Untested on macOS — I don't own a Mac, so this install path hasn't been verified on real hardware. If you hit a bug (or want to help, Mac or not), see Contribute below — everyone who helps gets permanent credit.
Option A — Clone with Git:
Option B: Download ZIP archive — extract and open in terminal.
Launch the HUD, then paste and configure your API keys directly inside the settings panel:
Launch the HUD, then paste and configure your API keys directly inside the settings panel:
NOVA is designed to feel natural. No menus, no configuration panels — just your voice.
Say "Nova" to get its attention, then speak your command naturally. No push-to-talk button required.
Hit the [MINI] button to shrink the HUD into a slim overlay. Perfect for multitasking without losing NOVA.
Click the central NOVA core orb at any time to immediately cut off a long response mid-sentence.
Say "Nova, enter debugging mode" to see real-time system logs — useful for tweaking or troubleshooting.
Here are the most common issues and how to fix them in under a minute.
Go to your OS sound settings and set your microphone as the default input device. NOVA uses the system default — no manual device selection yet.
Make sure you have configured at least one key (Groq or Google Gemini) inside the settings panel in the HUD, and that there are no invalid characters or trailing spaces.
Run npm install inside the ui/ folder first. Electron dependencies must be installed separately from the Python backend.
Re-run sh install_linux.sh. The installer now detects your distro and installs the required PyAudio and PortAudio system packages automatically.
NOVA was built and tested on Windows and Linux. I don't own a Mac, so the macOS path is untested on real hardware — that's the biggest gap right now. But any contribution, on any platform, gets you the same thing: real credit.
macOS especially wanted — test the install, file a bug, or fix one, and you'll be credited as macOS maintainer, both in this repo and in NOVA's in-HUD credits.
No Mac? Still welcome — money donation, bug fixes, features, docs, and design contributions on any platform all get you added to the Contributors list below.
Run the install script on your Mac and report back — even "it worked fine" is useful. Open an issue.
macOS, Windows, or Linux — found and fixed something? Open a Pull Request and it'll get reviewed and merged.
macOS handles audio permissions very differently — this is probably the highest-impact area to dig into.
Help get the Electron build signed and notarized for a smoother, warning-free experience on any OS.
UI polish, wake-word tweaks, a local model you got running well — if it's useful, it's welcome.
Clearer install steps, typo fixes, HUD themes, accessibility tweaks — small contributions count too.
Latest updates and improvements to the system.