Architecture Overview

Technical architecture and design of GGUF Loader

Advanced 15 minutes

This document provides a technical overview of GGUF Loader’s architecture and design decisions.

πŸ—οΈ High-Level Architecture

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β”‚                    GGUF Loader Application                   β”‚
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β”‚  β”Œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”  β”Œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”  β”Œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”  β”‚
β”‚  β”‚   UI Layer  β”‚  β”‚ Addon Layer β”‚  β”‚   Model Layer       β”‚  β”‚
β”‚  β”‚  (PySide6)  β”‚  β”‚  (Plugins)  β”‚  β”‚  (llama-cpp-python) β”‚  β”‚
β”‚  β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜  β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜  β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜  β”‚
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β”‚                      Core Services                           β”‚
β”‚  β”Œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β” β”Œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β” β”Œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β” β”Œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”   β”‚
β”‚  β”‚  Config  β”‚ β”‚  Events  β”‚ β”‚  Logger  β”‚ β”‚ Addon Managerβ”‚   β”‚
β”‚  β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜ β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜ β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜ β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜   β”‚
β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜

🧩 Component Overview

UI Layer (PySide6)

The user interface is built with PySide6 (Qt for Python):

  • Main Window: Application shell and layout
  • Chat Interface: Message display and input
  • Addon Sidebar: Addon management panel
  • Settings Dialog: Configuration UI

Model Layer (llama-cpp-python)

Handles GGUF model operations:

  • Model Loader: Load and initialize GGUF models
  • Chat Generator: Generate text responses
  • Tokenizer: Text tokenization and detokenization
  • Context Manager: Manage conversation context

Addon Layer

Extensible plugin system:

  • Addon Manager: Discover, load, and manage addons
  • Addon API: Interface for addon development
  • Event System: Communication between addons and core

Core Services

Shared functionality:

  • Configuration: Settings management
  • Event Bus: Application-wide events
  • Logger: Logging and debugging
  • Utils: Common utilities

πŸ”„ Data Flow

Chat Message Flow

User Input β†’ UI Layer β†’ Chat Handler β†’ Model Layer β†’ Response
     ↓                                                    ↓
  Validation                                         Formatting
     ↓                                                    ↓
  Event Emit ←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←← Display

Addon Integration Flow

Addon Discovery β†’ Load __init__.py β†’ Call register() β†’ Return Widget
       ↓                                                    ↓
  Scan addons/                                        Add to Sidebar
       ↓                                                    ↓
  Validate Structure ←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←← Connect Signals

🧱 Key Classes

GGUFLoaderApp

Main application class:

class GGUFLoaderApp(QMainWindow):
    # Signals
    model_loaded = Signal(object)
    model_unloaded = Signal()
    
    # Properties
    model: Optional[Llama]
    ai_chat: AIChat
    addon_manager: AddonManager
    
    # Methods
    def load_model(self, path: str) -> bool
    def unload_model(self) -> None
    def get_model_backend(self) -> Optional[Llama]

AddonManager

Manages addon lifecycle:

class AddonManager:
    def discover_addons(self) -> List[str]
    def load_addon(self, name: str) -> Optional[QWidget]
    def unload_addon(self, name: str) -> bool
    def get_addon(self, name: str) -> Optional[object]

ModelLoader

Handles model operations:

class ModelLoader:
    def load(self, path: str, **kwargs) -> Llama
    def unload(self) -> None
    def is_loaded(self) -> bool
    def get_info(self) -> Dict[str, Any]

πŸ”Œ Extension Points

Addon Registration

def register(parent=None) -> Optional[QWidget]:
    """
    Entry point for addons.
    
    Args:
        parent: Main application instance
        
    Returns:
        Widget for sidebar, or None for background addons
    """

Event Hooks

Available events for addons:

Event Description
model_loaded Model successfully loaded
model_unloaded Model unloaded
chat_message New chat message
addon_loaded Addon loaded
settings_changed Settings updated

πŸ—ƒοΈ State Management

Application State

class AppState:
    model: Optional[Llama]
    model_path: Optional[str]
    chat_history: List[Message]
    settings: Dict[str, Any]
    loaded_addons: Dict[str, object]

Persistence

  • Settings: JSON file in config directory
  • Chat History: SQLite database (optional)
  • Model Preferences: Per-model JSON files

πŸ”’ Security Architecture

Addon Sandboxing

  • Addons run in same process (trust model)
  • File system access limited to addon directory
  • Network access logged
  • Sensitive APIs require permission

Data Protection

  • No telemetry or data collection
  • All processing local
  • Clipboard access temporary and restored
  • Logs contain no sensitive data

πŸ“Š Performance Considerations

Memory Management

  • Models loaded on-demand
  • Lazy UI component initialization
  • Proper cleanup on unload
  • Memory-mapped model files

Threading Model

  • UI runs on main thread
  • Model inference on worker thread
  • Addon timers on main thread
  • Background tasks use QThreadPool

πŸ§ͺ Testing Architecture

Test Structure

tests/
β”œβ”€β”€ unit/
β”‚   β”œβ”€β”€ test_model_loader.py
β”‚   β”œβ”€β”€ test_addon_manager.py
β”‚   └── test_config.py
β”œβ”€β”€ integration/
β”‚   β”œβ”€β”€ test_chat_flow.py
β”‚   └── test_addon_loading.py
└── e2e/
    └── test_full_workflow.py

Mocking Strategy

  • Mock model for fast tests
  • Mock clipboard for addon tests
  • Mock file system for config tests

Questions about the architecture? Join our community discussions or contact support@ggufloader.com.

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