SillyTavern has no app store version, but it runs on Android through Termux, a terminal app that gives you a small Linux environment. SillyTavern itself is light: it is a web server and an interface, and the model does not run on the phone. You connect it to an API, and the phone only sends text back and forth. That is why a mid-range phone handles it fine.

The install takes about ten minutes, most of it waiting for downloads. You type a handful of commands once, and after that starting SillyTavern is one line.

1. Install Termux from F-Droid or GitHub

Install Termux from F-Droid or the Termux GitHub releases. Do not use the Google Play version: SillyTavern's own docs say it is no longer maintained.

2. Pick a mirror and update packages

Open Termux and run these one at a time. When termux-change-repo asks, choose a mirror group near you. Answer y to any prompt during the upgrade.

termux-change-repo
pkg update && pkg upgrade

3. Install Git and Node.js

pkg install git nodejs-lts nano

On an older 32-bit phone, also run pkg install esbuild, or the first start fails with Unsupported platform: android arm.

4. Download SillyTavern

The release branch is the stable one. Use staging only if you want new features before they are finished.

git clone https://github.com/SillyTavern/SillyTavern -b release

5. Start it

cd ~/SillyTavern
bash start.sh

The first start installs SillyTavern's dependencies and takes a few minutes. When it finishes, open http://127.0.0.1:8000 in your phone's browser. Keep Termux running in the background while you chat; closing it stops SillyTavern.

Android may pause Termux when the screen is off, which shows up as replies that never arrive. Pull down the Termux notification and tap Acquire wakelock, or run termux-wake-lock, to stop that.

6. Connect a proxy

SillyTavern needs a model to talk to. A phone cannot run a good roleplay model at a useful speed, so connect an API. With Composite:

  1. Create a key on the API Keys page. You can do this in the same phone browser.
  2. In SillyTavern, tap the plug icon. Set API to Chat Completion and the source to Custom (OpenAI-compatible).
  3. Enter https://composite.lucidity.sh/v1 as the endpoint URL. Do not add /chat/completions; SillyTavern adds it.
  4. Paste the key, tap Connect, then choose a model or type its ID, for example lucidityai/synth-2.5-flash, which is free on every account.
  5. Send a short test message before loading a long chat.

The desktop SillyTavern guide covers the rest of the settings, and this list of proxy errors explains what each failure message means. The errors are the same in SillyTavern as in JanitorAI.

Updating later

Stop SillyTavern with Ctrl+C in Termux (the Ctrl key is on the extra keys row), then:

cd ~/SillyTavern
git pull --rebase --autostash

If you want shorter commands, add aliases to ~/.bashrc with nano ~/.bashrc, then run source ~/.bashrc:

alias st='cd ~/SillyTavern && bash start.sh'
alias stup='cd ~/SillyTavern && git pull --rebase --autostash'

After that, st starts SillyTavern and stup updates it.

Phone browser or JanitorAI?

If all of this is more than you want, JanitorAI runs in a phone browser with nothing to install and takes the same Composite key. The trade-offs are in JanitorAI vs SillyTavern.