About AI Cockpit

The project

AI Cockpit started as a personal tool — a way to use Claude, Gemini, and Ollama from a single interface without copy-pasting between browser tabs. It grew into a full orchestration platform, replacing an earlier FPC/Lazarus desktop application (Maestro) that was harder to maintain and deploy.

The design philosophy is simple: everything runs on your own server. Your code, your conversations, your API keys — none of it goes anywhere unless you send it there deliberately. The stack is intentionally boring: Apache, PHP, Bash, and tmux. No framework, no daemon, no container.

It's a hobbyist project that became genuinely useful. Now it's available for anyone who wants an AI workspace that they actually control.

The author

Dario Ruggi — hobbyist programmer.

Primary languages: Free Pascal/Lazarus, PHP, Bash/Zsh, JavaScript. Strongly preferring offline-first, local-first, and privacy-preserving solutions.

Other projects: AI Cockpit (this), tools.ruggi.site (utilities), and various unreleased personal tools.

Design decisions

• No Python in the stack. Python is fine for external tools (whisper binary uses it internally) but Cockpit's own code is PHP, Bash, and JS only. No dependency management hell.
• No framework, no Node daemon. Vanilla JS. Standard Apache + PHP. The whole thing runs with a basic mod_php install. You can deploy it on a Raspberry Pi.
• File-queue + polling, not WebSocket. Agent responses are written to .out files, the browser polls every 200ms. Primitive but rock-solid — survives Apache restarts, works through proxies, requires no persistent process.
• Protanopia-safe themes by default. 18 Dalton theme variants specifically designed for red-green color deficiency, plus an auto-contrast safety net that adjusts text colors to meet WCAG thresholds on every theme automatically.
• Offline-first. If there's a choice between online and offline, offline wins. Cloud Workers are optional supplements, not requirements.

Related projects

• gensrt — Local movie subtitle generation tool. Whisper.cpp (Vulkan GPU) + LibreTranslate + ffmpeg. Modular Bash system, ~3,100 lines. Future integration planned as a Cockpit Tool worker for video attachments.
• Ruggi.Site — This web presence. Free single-page hosting for registered users. LAMP stack, raw PHP, wildcard Apache subdomains.

Accessibility note

All UI colors in AI Cockpit are chosen with Protanopia (red-green color deficiency) in mind. The application uses blue as the primary accent, with yellow and orange for secondary highlights. Red and green are never used as the sole distinguishing factor for any status or state. If you notice any accessibility issues, please report them.