F9 AI Chat Client

Cross-platform Avalonia desktop client that delivers a responsive chat experience across multiple LLM providers. The roadmap toward 1.0 lives in features/road_to_1_0.md and tracks milestone progress.

Quick Start

• Install the .NET 9.0.306 SDK (dotnet --list-sdks should list 9.0.306).
• Restore and run the desktop client:

  dotnet restore
  dotnet run --project ChatClient

• Run unit tests:

  dotnet test

Project Highlights

• MVVM architecture with streaming chat, retry flows, typing indicators, and persistent multi-project sessions.
• Settings service with runtime UI for provider, model, and chat persistence configuration.
• Auto-scroll, timestamp formatting, dark/light polish, and startup splash sequence for a smooth UX.

Packaging & Distribution

• Self-contained single-file bundles are produced per runtime identifier using the scripts in scripts/.
• Default targets: win-x64, win-arm64, osx-x64, osx-arm64, linux-x64, linux-arm64.
• Create release artifacts:

  ./scripts/package.sh
  # or on Windows
  pwsh ./scripts/package.ps1

• Artifacts land in artifacts/packages/<version>. Override the version stamp by exporting APP_VERSION.
• See docs/deployment.md for the verification checklist, system requirements, and release notes template.

Developer Workflow

• The chat client lives in ChatClient/; supporting integration and unit tests sit inside ChatClient.Tests/.
• Message, session, and configuration models are centralized under Models/.
• Avalonia resources (styles, icons, fonts) reside beneath ChatClient/Assets/.

Roadmap & Status

• Current milestone status, goals, and risks are tracked in features/road_to_1_0.md.
• Feature-specific design notes are documented in features/visual_features.md and features/input_specific_niceties.md.

Contributing

• Ensure new behavior is covered by unit or integration tests where feasible.
• Run dotnet format if you modify C# source files.
• Open a merge request with a brief description of the change and validation performed.