Resources

Installation

npm install cactus-react-native react-native-nitro-modules

Quick Start

Get started with Cactus in just a few lines of code:

import { CactusLM, type Message } from 'cactus-react-native';

// Create a new instance
const cactusLM = new CactusLM();

// Download the model
await cactusLM.download({
  onProgress: (progress) => console.log(`Download: ${Math.round(progress * 100)}%`)
});

// Generate a completion
const messages: Message[] = [
  { role: 'user', content: 'What is the capital of France?' }
];

const result = await cactusLM.complete({ messages });
console.log(result.response); // "The capital of France is Paris."

// Clean up resources
await cactusLM.destroy();

Using the React Hook:

import { useCactusLM } from 'cactus-react-native';

const App = () => {
  const cactusLM = useCactusLM();

  useEffect(() => {
    // Download the model if not already available
    if (!cactusLM.isDownloaded) {
      cactusLM.download();
    }
  }, []);

  const handleGenerate = () => {
    // Generate a completion
    cactusLM.complete({
      messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello!' }],
    });
  };

  if (cactusLM.isDownloading) {
    return (
      <Text>
        Downloading model: {Math.round(cactusLM.downloadProgress * 100)}%
      </Text>
    );
  }

  return (
    <>
      <Button onPress={handleGenerate} title="Generate" />
      <Text>{cactusLM.completion}</Text>
    </>
  );
};

Language Model

Completion

Generate text responses from the model by providing a conversation history.

Class

import { CactusLM, type Message } from 'cactus-react-native';

const cactusLM = new CactusLM();

const messages: Message[] = [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello, World!' }];
const onToken = (token: string) => { console.log('Token:', token) };

const result = await cactusLM.complete({ messages, onToken });
console.log('Completion result:', result);

Hook

import { useCactusLM, type Message } from 'cactus-react-native';

const App = () => {
  const cactusLM = useCactusLM();

  const handleComplete = async () => {
    const messages: Message[] = [{ role: 'user', content: 'Hello, World!' }];

    const result = await cactusLM.complete({ messages });
    console.log('Completion result:', result);
  };

  return (
    <>
      <Button title="Complete" onPress={handleComplete} />
      <Text>{cactusLM.completion}</Text>
    </>
  );
};

Vision

Vision allows you to pass images along with text prompts, enabling the model to analyze and understand visual content.

Class

import { CactusLM, type Message } from 'cactus-react-native';

// Vision-capable model
const cactusLM = new CactusLM({ model: 'lfm2-vl-450m' });

const messages: Message[] = [
  {
    role: 'user',
    content: "What's in the image?",
    images: ['path/to/your/image'],
  },
];

const result = await cactusLM.complete({ messages });
console.log('Response:', result.response);

Hook

import { useCactusLM, type Message } from 'cactus-react-native';

const App = () => {
  // Vision-capable model
  const cactusLM = useCactusLM({ model: 'lfm2-vl-450m' });

  const handleAnalyze = async () => {
    const messages: Message[] = [
      {
        role: 'user',
        content: "What's in the image?",
        images: ['path/to/your/image'],
      },
    ];

    await cactusLM.complete({ messages });
  };

  return (
    <>
      <Button title="Analyze Image" onPress={handleAnalyze} />
      <Text>{cactusLM.completion}</Text>
    </>
  );
};

Tool Calling

Enable the model to generate function calls by defining available tools and their parameters.

Class

import { CactusLM, type Message, type Tool } from 'cactus-react-native';

const tools: Tool[] = [
  {
    name: 'get_weather',
    description: 'Get current weather for a location',
    parameters: {
      type: 'object',
      properties: {
        location: {
          type: 'string',
          description: 'City name',
        },
      },
      required: ['location'],
    },
  },
];

const cactusLM = new CactusLM();

const messages: Message[] = [
  { role: 'user', content: "What's the weather in San Francisco?" },
];

const result = await cactusLM.complete({ messages, tools });
console.log('Response:', result.response);
console.log('Function calls:', result.functionCalls);

Hook

import { useCactusLM, type Message, type Tool } from 'cactus-react-native';

const tools: Tool[] = [
  {
    name: 'get_weather',
    description: 'Get current weather for a location',
    parameters: {
      type: 'object',
      properties: {
        location: {
          type: 'string',
          description: 'City name',
        },
      },
      required: ['location'],
    },
  },
];

const App = () => {
  const cactusLM = useCactusLM();

  const handleComplete = async () => {
    const messages: Message[] = [
      { role: 'user', content: "What's the weather in San Francisco?" },
    ];

    const result = await cactusLM.complete({ messages, tools });
    console.log('Response:', result.response);
    console.log('Function calls:', result.functionCalls);
  };

  return <Button title="Complete" onPress={handleComplete} />;
};

RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation)

RAG allows you to provide a corpus of documents that the model can reference during generation, enabling it to answer questions based on your data.

Class

import { CactusLM, type Message } from 'cactus-react-native';

const cactusLM = new CactusLM({
  corpusDir: 'path/to/your/corpus', // Directory containing .txt files
});

const messages: Message[] = [
  { role: 'user', content: 'What information is in the documents?' },
];

const result = await cactusLM.complete({ messages });
console.log(result.response);

Hook

import { useCactusLM, type Message } from 'cactus-react-native';

const App = () => {
  const cactusLM = useCactusLM({
    corpusDir: 'path/to/your/corpus', // Directory containing .txt files
  });

  const handleAsk = async () => {
    const messages: Message[] = [
      { role: 'user', content: 'What information is in the documents?' },
    ];

    await cactusLM.complete({ messages });
  };

  return (
    <>
      <Button title="Ask Question" onPress={handleAsk} />
      <Text>{cactusLM.completion}</Text>
    </>
  );
};

Embedding

Convert text and images into numerical vector representations that capture semantic meaning, useful for similarity search and semantic understanding.

Text Embedding

Class

import { CactusLM } from 'cactus-react-native';

const cactusLM = new CactusLM();

const result = await cactusLM.embed({ text: 'Hello, World!' });
console.log('Embedding vector:', result.embedding);
console.log('Embedding vector length:', result.embedding.length);

Hook

import { useCactusLM } from 'cactus-react-native';

const App = () => {
  const cactusLM = useCactusLM();

  const handleEmbed = async () => {
    const result = await cactusLM.embed({ text: 'Hello, World!' });
    console.log('Embedding vector:', result.embedding);
    console.log('Embedding vector length:', result.embedding.length);
  };

  return <Button title="Embed" onPress={handleEmbed} />;
};

Image Embedding

Class

import { CactusLM } from 'cactus-react-native';

const cactusLM = new CactusLM({ model: 'lfm2-vl-450m' });

const result = await cactusLM.imageEmbed({ imagePath: 'path/to/your/image.jpg' });
console.log('Image embedding vector:', result.embedding);
console.log('Embedding vector length:', result.embedding.length);

Hook

import { useCactusLM } from 'cactus-react-native';

const App = () => {
  const cactusLM = useCactusLM({ model: 'lfm2-vl-450m' });

  const handleImageEmbed = async () => {
    const result = await cactusLM.imageEmbed({ imagePath: 'path/to/your/image.jpg' });
    console.log('Image embedding vector:', result.embedding);
    console.log('Embedding vector length:', result.embedding.length);
  };

  return <Button title="Embed Image" onPress={handleImageEmbed} />;
};

Hybrid Mode (Cloud Fallback)

The CactusLM supports a hybrid completion mode that falls back to a cloud-based LLM provider OpenRouter if local inference fails.

Class

import { CactusLM, type Message } from 'cactus-react-native';

const cactusLM = new CactusLM();

const messages: Message[] = [
  { role: 'user', content: 'Hello, World!' }
];

// Falls back to remote if local fails
const result = await cactusLM.complete({
  messages,
  mode: 'hybrid'
});

Hook

import { useCactusLM, type Message } from 'cactus-react-native';

const App = () => {
  const cactusLM = useCactusLM();

  const handleComplete = async () => {
    const messages: Message[] = [
      { role: 'user', content: 'Hello, World!' }
    ];

    // Falls back to remote if local fails
    await cactusLM.complete({
      messages,
      mode: 'hybrid'
    });
  };

  return (
    <>
      <Button title="Complete" onPress={handleComplete} />
      <Text>{cactusLM.completion}</Text>
    </>
  );
};

Speech-to-Text (STT)

The CactusSTT class provides audio transcription and audio embedding capabilities using Whisper models.

Transcription

Transcribe audio files to text with streaming support.

Class

import { CactusSTT } from 'cactus-react-native';

const cactusSTT = new CactusSTT({ model: 'whisper-small' });

await cactusSTT.init();

const result = await cactusSTT.transcribe({
  audioFilePath: 'path/to/audio.wav',
  onToken: (token) => console.log('Token:', token)
});

console.log('Transcription:', result.response);

Hook

import { useCactusSTT } from 'cactus-react-native';

const App = () => {
  const cactusSTT = useCactusSTT({ model: 'whisper-small' });

  const handleTranscribe = async () => {
    const result = await cactusSTT.transcribe({
      audioFilePath: 'path/to/audio.wav',
    });
    console.log('Transcription:', result.response);
  };

  return (
    <>
      <Button onPress={handleTranscribe} title="Transcribe" />
      <Text>{cactusSTT.transcription}</Text>
    </>
  );
};

Audio Embedding

Generate embeddings from audio files for audio understanding.

Class

import { CactusSTT } from 'cactus-react-native';

const cactusSTT = new CactusSTT();

await cactusSTT.init();

const result = await cactusSTT.audioEmbed({
  audioPath: 'path/to/audio.wav'
});

console.log('Audio embedding vector:', result.embedding);
console.log('Embedding vector length:', result.embedding.length);

Hook

import { useCactusSTT } from 'cactus-react-native';

const App = () => {
  const cactusSTT = useCactusSTT();

  const handleAudioEmbed = async () => {
    const result = await cactusSTT.audioEmbed({
      audioPath: 'path/to/audio.wav'
    });
    console.log('Audio embedding vector:', result.embedding);
    console.log('Embedding vector length:', result.embedding.length);
  };

  return <Button title="Embed Audio" onPress={handleAudioEmbed} />;
};

API Reference

CactusLM Class

Constructor

new CactusLM(params?: CactusLMParams)

Parameters:

• model - Model slug (default: 'qwen3-0.6').
• contextSize - Context window size (default: 2048).
• corpusDir - Directory containing text files for RAG (default: undefined).

Methods

download(params?: CactusLMDownloadParams): Promise<void>

Downloads the model. If the model is already downloaded, returns immediately with progress 1. Throws an error if a download is already in progress.

Parameters:

• onProgress - Callback for download progress (0-1).

init(): Promise<void>

Initializes the model and prepares it for inference. Safe to call multiple times (idempotent). Throws an error if the model is not downloaded yet.

complete(params: CactusLMCompleteParams): Promise<CactusLMCompleteResult>

Performs text completion with optional streaming and tool support. Automatically calls init() if not already initialized. Throws an error if a generation (completion or embedding) is already in progress.

Parameters:

• messages - Array of Message objects.
• options - Generation options:
  • temperature - Sampling temperature (default: model-optimized).
  • topP - Nucleus sampling threshold (default: model-optimized).
  • topK - Top-K sampling limit (default: model-optimized).
  • maxTokens - Maximum number of tokens to generate (default: 512).
  • stopSequences - Array of strings to stop generation (default: undefined).
• tools - Array of Tool objects for function calling (default: undefined).
• onToken - Callback for streaming tokens.
• mode - Completion mode: 'local' | 'hybrid' (default: 'local')

embed(params: CactusLMEmbedParams): Promise<CactusLMEmbedResult>

Generates embeddings for the given text. Automatically calls init() if not already initialized. Throws an error if a generation (completion or embedding) is already in progress.

Parameters:

• text - Text to embed.

imageEmbed(params: CactusLMImageEmbedParams): Promise<CactusLMImageEmbedResult>

Generates embeddings for the given image. Requires a vision-capable model. Automatically calls init() if not already initialized. Throws an error if a generation (completion or embedding) is already in progress.

Parameters:

• imagePath - Path to the image file.

stop(): Promise<void>

Stops ongoing generation.

reset(): Promise<void>

Resets the model's internal state, clearing any cached context. Automatically calls stop() first.

destroy(): Promise<void>

Releases all resources associated with the model. Automatically calls stop() first. Safe to call even if the model is not initialized.

getModels(): Promise<CactusModel[]>

Fetches available models from the database and checks their download status.

useCactusLM Hook

The useCactusLM hook manages a CactusLM instance with reactive state. When model parameters (model, contextSize, or corpusDir) change, the hook creates a new instance and resets all state. The hook automatically cleans up resources when the component unmounts.

State

• completion: string - Current generated text. Automatically accumulated during streaming. Cleared before each new completion and when calling reset() or destroy().
• isGenerating: boolean - Whether the model is currently generating (completion or embedding). Both operations share this flag.
• isInitializing: boolean - Whether the model is initializing.
• isDownloaded: boolean - Whether the model is downloaded locally. Automatically checked when the hook mounts or model changes.
• isDownloading: boolean - Whether the model is being downloaded.
• downloadProgress: number - Download progress (0-1). Reset to 0 after download completes.
• error: string | null - Last error message from any operation, or null if there is no error. Cleared before starting new operations.

Methods

• download(params?: CactusLMDownloadParams): Promise<void> - Downloads the model. Updates isDownloading and downloadProgress state during download. Sets isDownloaded to true on success.
• init(): Promise<void> - Initializes the model for inference. Sets isInitializing to true during initialization.
• complete(params: CactusLMCompleteParams): Promise<CactusLMCompleteResult> - Generates text completions. Automatically accumulates tokens in the completion state during streaming. Sets isGenerating to true while generating. Clears completion before starting.
• embed(params: CactusLMEmbedParams): Promise<CactusLMEmbedResult> - Generates embeddings for the given text. Sets isGenerating to true during operation.
• imageEmbed(params: CactusLMImageEmbedParams): Promise<CactusLMImageEmbedResult> - Generates embeddings for the given image. Sets isGenerating to true while generating.
• stop(): Promise<void> - Stops ongoing generation. Clears any errors.
• reset(): Promise<void> - Resets the model's internal state, clearing cached context. Also clears the completion state.
• destroy(): Promise<void> - Releases all resources associated with the model. Clears the completion state. Automatically called when the component unmounts.
• getModels(): Promise<CactusModel[]> - Fetches available models from the database and checks their download status.

CactusSTT Class

Constructor

new CactusSTT(params?: CactusSTTParams)

Parameters:

• model - Model slug (default: 'whisper-small').
• contextSize - Context window size (default: 2048).

Methods

download(params?: CactusSTTDownloadParams): Promise<void>

Downloads the model. If the model is already downloaded, returns immediately with progress 1. Throws an error if a download is already in progress.

Parameters:

• onProgress - Callback for download progress (0-1).

init(): Promise<void>

Initializes the model and prepares it for inference. Safe to call multiple times (idempotent). Throws an error if the model is not downloaded yet.

transcribe(params: CactusSTTTranscribeParams): Promise<CactusSTTTranscribeResult>

Transcribes audio to text with optional streaming support. Automatically calls init() if not already initialized. Throws an error if a generation is already in progress.

Parameters:

• audioFilePath - Path to the audio file.
• prompt - Optional prompt to guide transcription (default: '<|startoftranscript|><|en|><|transcribe|><|notimestamps|>').
• options - Transcription options:
  • temperature - Sampling temperature (default: model-optimized).
  • topP - Nucleus sampling threshold (default: model-optimized).
  • topK - Top-K sampling limit (default: model-optimized).
  • maxTokens - Maximum number of tokens to generate (default: 512).
  • stopSequences - Array of strings to stop generation (default: undefined).
• onToken - Callback for streaming tokens.

audioEmbed(params: CactusSTTAudioEmbedParams): Promise<CactusSTTAudioEmbedResult>

Generates embeddings for the given audio file. Automatically calls init() if not already initialized. Throws an error if a generation is already in progress.

Parameters:

• audioPath - Path to the audio file.

stop(): Promise<void>

Stops ongoing transcription or embedding generation.

reset(): Promise<void>

Resets the model's internal state. Automatically calls stop() first.

destroy(): Promise<void>

Releases all resources associated with the model. Automatically calls stop() first. Safe to call even if the model is not initialized.

getModels(): Promise<CactusSTTModel[]>

Fetches available STT models from the database and checks their download status.

useCactusSTT Hook

The useCactusSTT hook manages a CactusSTT instance with reactive state. When model parameters (model, contextSize) change, the hook creates a new instance and resets all state. The hook automatically cleans up resources when the component unmounts.

State

• transcription: string - Current transcription text. Automatically accumulated during streaming. Cleared before each new transcription and when calling reset() or destroy().
• isGenerating: boolean - Whether the model is currently generating (transcription or embedding). Both operations share this flag.
• isInitializing: boolean - Whether the model is initializing.
• isDownloaded: boolean - Whether the model is downloaded locally. Automatically checked when the hook mounts or model changes.
• isDownloading: boolean - Whether the model is being downloaded.
• downloadProgress: number - Download progress (0-1). Reset to 0 after download completes.
• error: string | null - Last error message from any operation, or null if there is no error. Cleared before starting new operations.

Methods

• download(params?: CactusSTTDownloadParams): Promise<void> - Downloads the model. Updates isDownloading and downloadProgress state during download. Sets isDownloaded to true on success.
• init(): Promise<void> - Initializes the model for inference. Sets isInitializing to true during initialization.
• transcribe(params: CactusSTTTranscribeParams): Promise<CactusSTTTranscribeResult> - Transcribes audio to text. Automatically accumulates tokens in the transcription state during streaming. Sets isGenerating to true while generating. Clears transcription before starting.
• audioEmbed(params: CactusSTTAudioEmbedParams): Promise<CactusSTTAudioEmbedResult> - Generates embeddings for the given audio. Sets isGenerating to true during operation.
• stop(): Promise<void> - Stops ongoing generation. Clears any errors.
• reset(): Promise<void> - Resets the model's internal state. Also clears the transcription state.
• destroy(): Promise<void> - Releases all resources associated with the model. Clears the transcription state. Automatically called when the component unmounts.
• getModels(): Promise<CactusSTTModel[]> - Fetches available STT models from the database and checks their download status.

Type Definitions

CactusLMParams

interface CactusLMParams {
  model?: string;
  contextSize?: number;
  corpusDir?: string;
}

CactusLMDownloadParams

interface CactusLMDownloadParams {
  onProgress?: (progress: number) => void;
}

Message

interface Message {
  role: 'user' | 'assistant' | 'system';
  content?: string;
  images?: string[];
}

CompleteOptions

interface CompleteOptions {
  temperature?: number;
  topP?: number;
  topK?: number;
  maxTokens?: number;
  stopSequences?: string[];
}

Tool

interface Tool {
  name: string;
  description: string;
  parameters: {
    type: 'object';
    properties: {
      [key: string]: {
        type: string;
        description: string;
      };
    };
    required: string[];
  };
}

CactusLMCompleteParams

interface CactusLMCompleteParams {
  messages: Message[];
  options?: CompleteOptions;
  tools?: Tool[];
  onToken?: (token: string) => void;
  mode?: 'local' | 'hybrid';
}

CactusLMCompleteResult

interface CactusLMCompleteResult {
  success: boolean;
  response: string;
  functionCalls?: {
    name: string;
    arguments: { [key: string]: any };
  }[];
  timeToFirstTokenMs: number;
  totalTimeMs: number;
  tokensPerSecond: number;
  prefillTokens: number;
  decodeTokens: number;
  totalTokens: number;
}

CactusLMEmbedParams

interface CactusLMEmbedParams {
  text: string;
}

CactusLMEmbedResult

interface CactusLMEmbedResult {
  embedding: number[];
}

CactusLMImageEmbedParams

interface CactusLMImageEmbedParams {
  imagePath: string;
}

CactusLMImageEmbedResult

interface CactusLMImageEmbedResult {
  embedding: number[];
}

CactusModel

interface CactusModel {
  name: string;
  slug: string;
  quantization: number;
  sizeMb: number;
  downloadUrl: string;
  supportsToolCalling: boolean;
  supportsVision: boolean;
  supportsCompletion: boolean;
  createdAt: Date;
  isDownloaded: boolean;
}

CactusSTTModel

interface CactusSTTModel {
  slug: string;
  sizeMb: number;
  downloadUrl: string;
  createdAt: Date;
  isDownloaded: boolean;
}

CactusSTTParams

interface CactusSTTParams {
  model?: string;
  contextSize?: number;
}

CactusSTTDownloadParams

interface CactusSTTDownloadParams {
  onProgress?: (progress: number) => void;
}

TranscribeOptions

interface TranscribeOptions {
  temperature?: number;
  topP?: number;
  topK?: number;
  maxTokens?: number;
  stopSequences?: string[];
}

CactusSTTTranscribeParams

interface CactusSTTTranscribeParams {
  audioFilePath: string;
  prompt?: string;
  options?: TranscribeOptions;
  onToken?: (token: string) => void;
}

CactusSTTTranscribeResult

interface CactusSTTTranscribeResult {
  success: boolean;
  response: string;
  timeToFirstTokenMs: number;
  totalTimeMs: number;
  tokensPerSecond: number;
  prefillTokens: number;
  decodeTokens: number;
  totalTokens: number;
}

CactusSTTAudioEmbedParams

interface CactusSTTAudioEmbedParams {
  audioPath: string;
}

CactusSTTAudioEmbedResult

interface CactusSTTAudioEmbedResult {
  embedding: number[];
}

Configuration

Telemetry

Cactus offers powerful telemetry for all your projects. Create a token on the Cactus dashboard.

import { CactusConfig } from 'cactus-react-native';

// Enable Telemetry for your project
CactusConfig.telemetryToken = 'your-telemetry-token-here';

// Disable telemetry
CactusConfig.isTelemetryEnabled = false;

Hybrid Mode

Enable cloud fallback.

import { CactusConfig } from 'cactus-react-native';

// Set your Cactus token for hybrid mode
CactusConfig.cactusToken = 'your-cactus-token-here';

Performance Tips

• Model Selection - Choose smaller models for faster inference on mobile devices.
• Context Size - Reduce the context size to lower memory usage.
• Memory Management - Always call destroy() when you're done with models to free up resources.

Example App

Check out our example app for a complete React Native implementation.