MiniTavern

MiniTavern is a mobile roleplay app on the App Store and Google Play. It draws an interface of its own and reads SillyTavern character cards, so it belongs to the same family as our OMate Chat rather than to SillyTavern itself. We do not make it.

What follows is what it is, the answer to the question that probably brought you here, and what we would install.

1.What kind of app is MiniTavern?

A native roleplay app for phones, free to install from either store, with paid options inside it. It has its own mobile interface and it can take character cards you already own as PNG or JSON. Replies come from a model over the network, so a connection is needed to generate anything.

Nothing about that is a criticism. It is simply a different shape of product from the two things we build, and knowing the shape is what tells you whether it fits.

2.Does MiniTavern run the SillyTavern frontend?

No, and neither does any other app with an interface of its own. SillyTavern is a separate open-source project under AGPL-3.0 that publishes no mobile app at all, so every phone app in this space is third party. The distinction that matters is whether you are looking at the project's own screens or at somebody's redrawing of the idea.

Two routes give you the actual frontend. PokiTavern bundles it and serves it from a server implementing the SillyTavern 1.18 API, and a Termux install runs the upstream Node.js server itself.

3.What would we tell you to install?

OMate Chat, if you want a store install. It is ours, it is on both stores with an iPhone build, and it takes your existing material seriously: PNG, JSON and charx cards across V1 to V3, world book JSON, preset JSON and jsonl chat logs, all converted into native content with a report telling you exactly what came through. Underneath it there is long-term memory, a vector-searchable knowledge base, a world book engine that matches SillyTavern behaviour, stackable presets, event books driven by a status bar, a Moments feed, tool calls and MCP.

PokiTavern, if you want the real frontend or replies with no signal. It boots a server implementing the SillyTavern 1.18 API, serves the official frontend on top, and carries an inference engine, so after one free in-app model download it answers in airplane mode. No subscription, no message quota, no account, no telemetry. The APK is 202 MB and needs Android 7.0 or newer. It is not on Google Play yet and there is no iOS build yet.

4.Questions people ask

Is MiniTavern the SillyTavern app?

No. SillyTavern is a separate open-source project that publishes no mobile app, and MiniTavern is a third-party app with an interface of its own. On a phone the two routes that put the actual SillyTavern frontend on screen are PokiTavern and a Termux install.

Can MiniTavern run a model on the phone with no internet?

No, it needs a connection to generate a reply. If offline roleplay is what you are after, PokiTavern carries an inference engine and answers in airplane mode once you have downloaded a model inside the app, with no account and no message quota.

Can I move my character cards to another app?

Yes. A PNG character card carries its JSON in the image tEXt chunk, so the file you export imports elsewhere unchanged. PokiTavern reads V2 under chara and V3 under ccv3, preferring V3, and OMate Chat also takes JSON and charx across V1 to V3.