The builder clones the committed main tree into an isolated directory, runs unit/security and both mobile acceptance suites, audits dependencies, checks syntax and secrets, excludes model weights and sensitive/generated media, records a vertical feature demonstration from the working app, fully decodes and probes that MP4, and writes checksummed source/video artifacts plus manifest.json under /root/timmy-releases/. It refuses dirty or non-main source trees.

Promote or roll back private staging

The standard-library deployment tool verifies the declared archive SHA-256 before tar parsing, rejects unsafe or secret-bearing members, creates one immutable releases/<40-character-commit> directory, and atomically repoints current. Restart, bounded commit-specific health, or synthetic mobile smoke failures restore and verify the prior release automatically.

python3 scripts/deploy_staging.py --dry-run promote --tag TAG --archive FILE --sha256 HASH --commit FULL_COMMIT
sudo python3 scripts/deploy_staging.py promote --tag TAG --archive FILE --sha256 HASH --commit FULL_COMMIT
python3 scripts/deploy_staging.py status
sudo python3 scripts/deploy_staging.py rollback --commit PRIOR_FULL_COMMIT

Commands are fixed argv arrays executed with shell=False; JSON argv overrides and --root exist for rootless fixtures. See the staging runbook for host prerequisites, mode-600 environment injection, Caddy validation, smoke credentials, logs, backups, removal, and the explicit no-live-change boundary.

Run with the self-hosted open-weight path

npm install

# Installs the exact llama.cpp commit and verifies both GGUF SHA-256 receipts.
scripts/bootstrap_selfhost_smolvlm.sh install
scripts/bootstrap_selfhost_smolvlm.sh start
scripts/bootstrap_selfhost_smolvlm.sh health

# Run Timmy in another terminal.
TIMMY_VISION_PROFILE=selfhost npm start
# open http://localhost:4173

# When finished:
scripts/bootstrap_selfhost_smolvlm.sh stop

The bootstrap defaults to ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/timmy-selfhost, prints immutable source/model receipts with receipt, and binds only to 127.0.0.1:8080. Downloads are rejected unless both pinned SHA-256 hashes match, and model weights remain outside Git. Set TIMMY_SELFHOST_ROOT to choose another private data directory; override host, port, threads, or build jobs with the documented TIMMY_MODEL_*/TIMMY_BUILD_JOBS environment variables.

The selected bootstrap model is SmolVLM2-2.2B-Instruct using the official Apache-2.0 GGUF conversion. It is a provisional labeling worker, not a diagnostic or clinically validated classifier.

Run with a hosted provider

hermes proxy start --provider nous --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8645
npm start

Hosted remains the default compatibility profile. To make it explicit, set TIMMY_VISION_PROFILE=hosted. Credentials stay server-side:

TIMMY_VISION_BASE_URL=https://your-openai-compatible-provider/v1 \
TIMMY_VISION_API_KEY=... \
TIMMY_VISION_MODEL=your-vision-model \
npm start

Set TIMMY_VISION_ENABLED=0 to disable uploads and retain manual-only operation.

Enable the full Hermes Agent chat

Hermes chat is disabled by default because a tool-capable agent can spend the authority of its server-side profile. Timmy requires an exact public origin, a strong operator access code, and an absolute dedicated workspace before the browser route exists.

mkdir -m 700 -p /root/timmy-agent-workspace
install -m 600 docs/TIMMY-AGENT-POLICY.md /root/timmy-agent-workspace/AGENTS.md
hermes profile create timmyapp --description "Private Timmy chat agent"

TIMMY_AGENT_ENABLED=true \
TIMMY_AGENT_ACCESS_TOKEN="$(openssl rand -hex 24)" \
TIMMY_PUBLIC_ORIGIN=http://127.0.0.1:4173 \
TIMMY_AGENT_WORKDIR=/root/timmy-agent-workspace \
TIMMY_HERMES_COMMAND=/root/.local/bin/timmyapp \
npm start

Authenticate/configure the dedicated timmyapp profile before use. Do not reuse a broad personal profile in a public deployment. The browser receives only an opaque HttpOnly, SameSite session cookie; it never receives provider credentials, Hermes session IDs, model/provider controls, or tool policy. Each conversation is resumed server-side with one in-flight turn, a 4,000-character message cap, a 20-entry text-only ledger context, fixed origin checks, rate and timeout limits, and sanitized errors. Photos are excluded from chat by construction. The application’s deterministic urgent-symptom warning runs before Hermes.

For an HTTPS deployment, set TIMMY_PUBLIC_ORIGIN to the exact HTTPS origin so the session cookie is marked Secure. Put the Node service behind authenticated TLS and give the dedicated profile only the host/service authority the intended user should be able to exercise.

Verify

npm test
npm run test:ui       # server required on port 4173
npm run test:photo    # mocked positive suggestion through the real browser UX
npm run test:sleek   # simplified 390x844 shell + free-text Hermes chat
npm run test:manual-fallback  # vision-offline manual path + in-session draft recovery
npm run test:vision-refusal   # corpus refusals through a real server and a real browser
npm run test:grounded-chat    # chat answers cite the ledger, or refuse to answer
npm audit --audit-level=high

What works

Photo-first camera/file capture
Client-side image compression before transfer
Explicit consent before one-time provider analysis
Structured AI suggestions for visible Bristol form and color only
Confidence display, low-confidence abstention, and user confirmation
Urgency, discomfort, notes, and symptoms remain strictly user-reported
Manual logging that never uploads
Sleek three-destination mobile shell with one dominant photo action
Free-text smart chat with real server-side Hermes session continuity and local fallback
Grounded chat: an answer that states a count, a date, or a form cites the confirmed records behind it, and each citation opens exactly that log. A question the journal cannot answer (food safety, medicine, what a symptom means) gets boundary copy with no borrowed evidence, a window below the minimum refuses to describe a trend, and a Hermes answer that cites a record the ledger does not contain is labelled unverified instead of shown as a source
Authenticated, same-origin, bounded browser-to-agent gateway with no browser-side credentials
Red-flag symptom escalation
A short user-reported follow-up after a hard/lumpy (Bristol 1–2) log — difficulty passing, soreness, visible blood, truly black/tarry versus dark brown, and hydration. Mild reports get concise non-diagnostic self-care that never claims a photo ruled out bleeding; a confirmed red flag sets the same deterministic escalation the manual checkboxes use
Manual fallback that never depends on AI: when the vision worker is offline or disabled, no AI or consent control is offered and manual Bristol entry stays one action away
A committed CC0 synthetic vision corpus that continuously proves every reply is schema-valid or fails closed. A schema-valid reply with no readable form or colour now abstains ("No confident match") instead of surfacing as a worker failure, and unparsable or out-of-range replies return plain copy — "No suggestion was applied. Continue manually, or try a clearer photo." — with no provider text, image bytes, or credentials echoed. See tests/fixtures/vision-corpus
Unsaved logging drafts are retained in the session with an explicit start over, and the service worker never caches analysis requests or image bodies
Local browser ledger, calendar, pattern summary, JSON portability, and delete-all
Explainable pattern summaries: the home insight card reports the confirmed-log count and form groupings for the last 28 days, every line names the exact confirmed records behind it, following a citation opens those records, and a window below the minimum says it is too sparse instead of describing a trend. No line explains a cause, rules on food, or offers a health verdict
Installable/offline PWA shell for the manual and saved-ledger paths

What is deliberately not faked

The positive photo-prefill interface is covered by a deterministic provider fixture. A live self-hosted SmolVLM2-2.2B model was exercised against a CC-licensed real Type 4 stool photograph. It accepted the content and identified stool, but predicted the wrong type with low confidence; Timmy correctly abstained. The open model removes provider moderation from the path, but its Bristol accuracy is not clinically established.

Timmy does not diagnose disease, identify bleeding, infer pain/urgency, recommend treatment, or clear foods. The selected VLM is a bootstrap worker, not the final classifier. See research/SELF-HOSTED-STOOL-VISION.md for the measured receipts, hardware gate, consented-data pipeline, specialist-classifier plan, and sources.

Architecture

Browser PWA
├── app.js                    sleek photo-first UX, local ledger, free-text chat
├── src/domain.js             tested health/safety and summary rules
├── src/analysis.js           strict AI schema, validation, visual-only merge
├── server.mjs                static server + bounded vision and agent routes
├── src/hermes-agent-service.js  authenticated session-bound Hermes CLI adapter
├── src/vision-service.js     server-side OpenAI-compatible provider adapter
├── src/vision-config.js      hosted/self-hosted profiles and readiness probe
├── scripts/bootstrap_selfhost_smolvlm.sh  pinned install/start/health/stop lifecycle
├── scripts/run_selfhost_smolvlm.sh        custom-path foreground launcher
├── scripts/ingest_training_photo.py
├── localStorage              saved ledger and attached photos
└── llama.cpp / hosted API    selected per server-side profile

The server accepts JPEG/PNG/WebP data URLs up to 4 MB, uses a bounded 60-second hosted or 120-second self-hosted timeout, never accepts an API key from browser input, does not write inference images to disk, and returns only validated visual suggestions. The separate dataset ingester runs only for explicit, consented contributions.

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Timmy the Talking Turd

Build a gated review release