Phantom Shell - a haunted terminal possessed by a local open-weight model

Phantom Shell 👻 - Ghost in the Machine (Hacktoberfest 2026 Week 4) Challenge: #devchallenge #hf26challenge - Week 4 Ghost in the Machine Author: Ri Piao · X @pr742674

What I built

Phantom Shell is a CLI that lets an open-weight model possess your terminal. You run a normal shell command. The phantom - a local model via Ollama - whispers a short, eerie commentary about what you just did.

You can also chat with it, or drop into possess mode: an interactive haunted REPL. If Ollama is not installed, a built-in mock ghost still demos the full UX so judges (and you) can try it offline in seconds.

Theme take: the “ghost” should live in the machine - open weights, local inference, no cloud API key. Privacy is the haunting.

Demo

git clone https://github.com/pr7426/ghost-in-the-machine.git
cd ghost-in-the-machine
python3 -m phantom_shell demo # or: ./scripts/demo.sh

Interactive:

python3 -m phantom_shell possess
# phantom> echo boo
# phantom> .chat Who are you?
# phantom> .quit

With a real local model:

ollama pull llama3.2
python3 -m phantom_shell possess --model llama3.2

Sample transcript (checked into the repo): demo/sample_session.txt

Repository

🔗 Repo: https://github.com/pr7426/ghost-in-the-machine License: MIT · Language: Python 3.10+ · Deps: stdlib only for core

Open-source AI used

• Serving: Ollama (/api/chat)
• Model: llama3.2 by default (any Ollama open model works: phi3, qwen2.5, gemma2, …)
• Offline: Mock ghost when Ollama is down
• Optional path: llama.cpp / GGUF via Ollama or a local server (--host)

No closed SaaS LLM is required for the core experience.

Why open innovation matters (here)

• Offline & private - command context and chat stay on-device; great for a personal shell.
• Swappable weights - one flag changes the soul of the ghost; community models welcome.
• Hackable - tiny stdlib client, MIT, easy to fork into prompts, tools, or a full agentic shell.
• Inclusive demos - mock mode means anyone can run the challenge submission without a GPU.

Open weights turn “AI feature” into something you can own, inspect, and remix - which is the point of a Ghost that lives in your machine.

Thanks Hacktoberfest + DEV for Week 4 - may your shells stay haunted. 🎃