eVi

Multi-machine setup

How to wire eVi across a workstation, a laptop, and a headless AI server on the same LAN — what most people actually want once they have a "server class" GPU.

The setup

                    ┌──────────────────────────────┐
                    │      AI server (P40 / 24GB)  │
                    │  Ollama   :11434             │
                    │  ComfyUI  :8188              │
                    │  evi web  :8000 (0.0.0.0)    │
                    └────────────┬─────────────────┘
                                 │  LAN
        ┌────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┐
        │                        │                        │
   ┌────▼─────┐            ┌─────▼──────┐           ┌─────▼────┐
   │ Laptop   │            │ Desktop    │           │ Phone /  │
   │ thin     │            │ thick-and- │           │ Tablet   │
   │ client   │            │ thin both  │           │ browser  │
   └──────────┘            └────────────┘           └──────────┘

1. AI server (the P40 box)

Install Ollama if you haven't. It has the cleanest model-management API and works fine on Pascal-era cards using integer quants:

# Linux (server)
curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh
ollama pull qwen2.5:32b-instruct-q4_K_M     # ~22 GB, the P40 sweet spot

Install eVi:

git clone <repo> /opt/evi && cd /opt/evi
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e '.[web,mcp,scheduler]'

Tell eVi to use Ollama and start the web server bound to your LAN:

evi models backend ollama                       # auto-bumps base_url to :11434/v1
evi models use qwen2.5:32b-instruct-q4_K_M
evi web --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000              # listens on the LAN

For "always on", run it as a systemd service:

# /etc/systemd/system/evi-web.service
[Unit]
Description=eVi web UI
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=evi
WorkingDirectory=/opt/evi
Environment="PATH=/opt/evi/.venv/bin"
ExecStart=/opt/evi/.venv/bin/evi web --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
sudo systemctl enable --now evi-web

The scheduler boots automatically inside the FastAPI lifespan; any evi schedule add tasks fire from this machine.

2. Desktop (the 16 GB workstation)

Same install as the server. Pick a backend you have running locally:

# Option A: keep using your existing LM Studio install
evi models backend lmstudio
evi models recommend                            # confirms 14B fits

# Option B: install Ollama locally for symmetry with the server
evi models backend ollama
evi models pull qwen2.5:14b-instruct-q4_K_M
evi models use qwen2.5:14b-instruct-q4_K_M

Use the CLI directly (evi chat) or browse to http://localhost:8000/ after evi web.

You can also have this machine talk to the AI server when the desktop isn't doing the heavy lifting:

evi profile add server --backend openai_compat \
    --base-url http://ai-server.local:8000/v1 \
    --model qwen2.5:32b-instruct-q4_K_M

evi --profile server chat

3. Laptop (the 940MX thin client)

The 940MX is too small to be useful as an LLM host (see the discussion in the model-selector chat for details). Treat it as a pure thin client.

Install + create two profiles:

git clone <repo> ~/evi && cd ~/evi
python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/Scripts/activate
pip install -e .

evi profile add home --backend openai_compat \
    --base-url http://ai-server.local:8000/v1 \
    --model qwen2.5:32b-instruct-q4_K_M

evi profile add away --backend lmstudio \
    --model llama3.2:1b-instruct-q4_K_M

Use them:

evi --profile home chat        # at home: full power via the server
evi --profile away chat        # off-LAN: fall back to a tiny local model

Desktop (Tauri) on the laptop

The Tauri desktop app can run in remote mode, skipping the Python spawn entirely. The webview points at the AI server directly:

EVI_REMOTE_URL=http://ai-server.local:8000 evi-desktop.exe

That's the laptop's nicest experience: no Python required for chat, just a webview against your home server.

DNS / discovery notes

Replace ai-server.local with whatever your network resolves. Options:

If you go the Tailscale route, you can drop the --profile away fallback altogether and just always use the server.

Security

evi web --host 0.0.0.0 binds to every interface. If your AI server is on a network you don't control, you should:

eVi has no built-in auth on the web UI by design — it assumes a trusted network.

Syncing your state across machines (evi sync)

The three machines above can share the knowledge that should follow you — memory, skills, profiles, saved commands, routes, the MCP server list, and hooks — via a git remote (any private repo works):

# On the first machine: point at an (empty) private git repo + push.
evi sync init git@github.com:you/evi-home.git
evi sync push

# On each other machine: same remote, then pull to adopt the synced state.
evi sync init git@github.com:you/evi-home.git
evi sync pull

Day to day: evi sync push after you teach eVi something, evi sync pull when you sit down at another machine. evi sync status shows the remote + what's changed.

What travels: memory/ skills/ profiles/ commands/ routes.json mcp.json hooks.toml.

What stays local (and why): config.toml (backend URLs + secrets differ per machine — your server runs Ollama, your laptop points at it), tokens/ (OAuth secrets), models/ + indices/ (large, and rebuildable), and logs/ images/ screenshots/ uploads/ transcripts/ scheduled/ (machine-local). A managed .gitignore enforces this, so even new files default to not synced.

First evi sync pull on a machine adopts the remote state (it force-checks-out the synced paths). Anything you'd created locally under those paths first should be pushed from there before pulling elsewhere.

Edit on GitHub ↗