Activity

+++ disableToc = false title = "Activity" weight = 21 url = "/features/activity/" description = "Watch, cancel and retry model and backend installs from the WebUI" +++

Model installs, backend installs, removals and cluster staging all run in the background. Two surfaces in the WebUI report them: a one-line strip at the top of the app, and the Activity page, which holds the full picture.

Both are admin-only.

The operations strip

While there is anything to report, a single line appears at the top of the app. It shows one operation at a time:

• a failure, if there is one, because an error waiting for a decision outranks any progress;
• otherwise the least advanced running operation, which is the one everything else is waiting behind.

Every operation shows what is being done and to what, for example Installing model qwen3-4b. Everything else depends on what the operation can report. A percentage and its bar appear only once the operation is running and has reported progress, so a queued operation, a failed one and a removal show none. Artifact-backed gallery models report two things more: the phase (Resolving files, Downloading, Verifying, Finalizing, Saving configuration) and downloaded/total bytes. A backend installing on several workers is rolled up into one phrase, 2 of 5 nodes done; the per-node breakdown lives on the Activity page.

When more than one operation is in flight, a N more counter on the right links to the Activity page.

When the last operation finishes, it stays on the strip for about four seconds and then goes, so a fast install is not a flicker. While others are still running, the strip moves straight on to the next one. An operation you cancel is not held: it goes as soon as it stops.

The X on the right hides the strip. It does not cancel anything: the work carries on, the sidebar still counts it, and the Activity page still lists it. Hiding applies to that one operation, so a later failure brings the strip back. On a failure the same button acknowledges the error and moves it into the record instead.

The Activity page

Operate → Activity (/app/activity). The page has up to three sections, each shown only when it has something in it.

In progress

One card per running or queued operation, each naming what is being done and to what. A percentage and progress bar appear only once the operation is running and has reported progress, so a queued operation and a removal show none. Artifact-backed gallery models also report the phase, downloaded and total bytes, and an estimate of the time left once enough of the transfer has been observed to work one out. Every backend install, and every gallery model that lists its files directly, reports no phase and no byte counters; those cards show the installer's own status line instead, which names the file being fetched and its size.

An install that involves workers shows a per-node list, with one row per worker:

• a status pill: Queued, Downloading, Worker busy, Done or Failed;
• the file being transferred, with current/total bytes and a percentage;
• any error the worker returned.

An install that fans out to more than one worker also carries an N nodes tag and a toggle over the list. Lists of up to four nodes start expanded, longer ones start collapsed behind Show N nodes, and the toggle reads Hide per-node detail while the list is open.

Worker busy means the worker took longer than --backend-install-timeout to acknowledge but is most likely still working. It clears on its own when the worker finishes.

Needs attention

Model and backend operations that failed and have not been acknowledged yet, each card carrying the error returned by the installer. Cluster staging never appears here: a staging job reports no error to the page, so a staging failure has to be read from the logs.

Record

What finished, newest first, one row each: the name, what happened (installed in 1m 12s, removed, cancelled, or failed: with the error), the time of day it finished, and a link into Models or Backends. Model and backend installs and removals are recorded; cluster staging is not, so a staging run leaves nothing behind here once it finishes.

Filters

Four chips above the sections filter the whole page: All, Models, Backends and Cluster. In the live sections, Cluster covers staged model files and any install that involves workers, whether it targets one node or fans out across several. In the Record it covers only the node-targeted case: a finished fan-out install is filed under Models or Backends, not under Cluster.

Cancelling, retrying and dismissing

These are on the operation cards. Cancel and Retry are labelled buttons; dismissing is the X at the end of a failed card. The strip has no cancel button; the page is the only place work is stopped or restarted.

• Cancel is offered while an operation is queued, whatever it is, and while an install is running. It is not offered once a removal has started: a removal in progress cannot be interrupted, so the window to call one off is the queue, before a worker picks it up. Cancelling there stops it before anything is touched. For artifact-backed gallery models, cancelling an active download leaves its partial files in place so a later install resumes rather than starting over. A cancelled operation leaves the live sections immediately and is not held on the strip the way a completed one is; it appears in the record as cancelled.
• Retry is offered on a failed model or backend install. It acknowledges the failure, which moves it into the record, and installs the same target again. It is not offered on a failed removal, which is not restarted by reinstalling.
• Dismiss, the X on a failed card, acknowledges the failure without retrying. The operation moves into the record with a failed outcome; it is not deleted. This is why the same failure can be found either under Needs attention or in the Record, depending on whether it has been acknowledged.

{{% notice note %}} Retrying a model that was installed with an explicit variant reinstalls it with automatic variant selection, because the variant is not carried on the operation. If you pinned a build, reinstall it from the Models page or the API with the variant you want rather than using Retry. See [Model Gallery]({{% relref "features/model-gallery" %}}) for variants. {{% /notice %}}

History

The record holds the last 50 finished operations. Where it is kept depends on how LocalAI is running:

• Standalone: in memory, so it is empty again after a restart. For durable per-model install state, use the model and backend listings rather than this page.
• [Distributed mode]({{% relref "features/distributed-mode" %}}): in PostgreSQL, alongside the operations themselves. It is the same record on every replica, it survives restarts, and a replica added by a scale-out or a rolling deploy reports it in full rather than starting empty.

Clear history, beside the page title whenever the record has anything in it, empties it. Running operations and unacknowledged failures are untouched. In distributed mode it clears the record for every replica, not just the one serving the page.

The sidebar count

The Operate entry in the sidebar carries a badge whenever something is in flight, showing how many operations are running or queued. If any failure is waiting to be acknowledged, the badge turns red and counts the failures instead, so the number always reports the thing that most wants your attention.

API

Both surfaces are backed by these endpoints. All of them are admin-only when [authentication]({{% relref "features/authentication" %}}) is enabled.

Pausing preserves the download's .partial file. Start the same model or backend installation again to resume from the saved bytes when the origin supports HTTP Range requests. Cancelling intentionally discards partial data.

Both GET endpoints wrap their list in an operations key rather than returning a bare array:

# What has finished
curl http://localhost:8080/api/operations/history \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin-key>"

{
  "operations": [
    {
      "id": "localai@qwen3-4b",
      "name": "qwen3-4b",
      "jobID": "6f1b0c2e-...",
      "isBackend": false,
      "taskType": "installation",
      "outcome": "completed",
      "startedAt": "2026-07-27T10:02:11.482913574Z",
      "finishedAt": "2026-07-27T10:03:23.117402881Z"
    }
  ]
}

nodeID is present when the operation was scoped to a worker, and error when the outcome is failed. The outcome is one of completed, failed or cancelled.

# Forget the record
curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8080/api/operations/history \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin-key>"

The DELETE answers 500 with an error if the record could not be cleared, which in distributed mode means the rows are still there. It never reports success on a record it did not clear.