Otra

Otra is a GNOME Shell extension for quick English help using a local Ollama model.

It adds:

• a top-bar indicator
• a quick action window
• configurable hotkeys
• built-in Explain and Simplify actions
• editable prompt templates in Preferences

Otra is not standalone. You need:

• GNOME Shell 49
• an accessible Ollama server
• at least one small available model

Quick Start

1. Pull a model if you do not already have one:

ollama pull gemma3:1b

2. Start Ollama if it is not already running:

ollama serve

3. Download the latest otra@offline-english-helper.shell-extension.zip from GitHub Releases.

4. Install and enable the extension:

gnome-extensions install --force otra@offline-english-helper.shell-extension.zip
gnome-extensions enable otra@offline-english-helper

5. Open the extension preferences and set:

• the Ollama base URL if you do not use http://127.0.0.1:11434
• the model Otra should use
• your preferred hotkeys

Use

• Left click the top-bar icon to open Otra.
• Right click the top-bar icon to open the menu.
• Run the default action with Ctrl+Super+S.
• Open the action picker with Ctrl+Super+A.

For Collaborators

Local Development

Sync the extension into your local GNOME Shell extensions directory:

make sync

Useful commands:

make test
make check
make dist

make sync copies the extension to:

~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/otra@offline-english-helper

and then disables and re-enables it.

Release Bundle

Build the installable zip with:

make dist

Output:

dist/otra@offline-english-helper.shell-extension.zip

Notes

• Default Ollama URL: http://127.0.0.1:11434
• Clipboard access is limited to a user-initiated, write-only copy action for generated output.
• If you publish on extensions.gnome.org, keep the Ollama dependency explicit in the listing description.