BETA

Aegis Hiker Documentation

Aegis Hiker plans, records and relives hikes. You explore a region on a topographic map, compose a route trail by trail with elevation-aware timing, carry it on your phone without signal, and afterwards log the hike, match your geotagged photos to it and replay it. Everything runs on your computer: maps and trails are stored locally, the AI runs through Ollama, and there is no account and no cloud.

The model suggests; code computes. Routing, distances, climb, timing and photo matching are all done by code. When the AI proposes a change to your route or gear list, you see the difference first and nothing changes until you accept.

Installation & Setup

Aegis Hiker is available for Linux as a Snap or as a Debian/Ubuntu .deb package from the download page.

Snap

Install from the Snap Store, or in a terminal (the Snap is currently on the candidate channel):

sudo snap install aegishiker --candidate

To read photos or export files on USB drives, connect this interface once:

sudo snap connect aegishiker:removable-media

With the Snap, your data lives under ~/snap/aegishiker/current/.aegishiker/.

Debian / Ubuntu (.deb)

Download the package, then install it with apt so its dependencies are pulled in:

cd ~/Downloads
sudo apt install ./aegishiker_*_amd64.deb

The app appears in your applications menu, and as aegishiker on the command line. The package bundles its own Python environment.

Local AI (Ollama)

The trail brainstormer and AI trail guide use a local model through Ollama, installed separately — see our Ollama setup guide. Then pull the default model:

ollama pull qwen2.5:7b

It runs on an 8 GB laptop without a GPU. On a slower computer, use qwen2.5:3b.

Ollama is optional. Without it, route suggestions and safety advice come from built-in rules, and everything else works as usual.

Regions & Maps

A region holds the trail network, map detail and points of interest for one area. Several ship with the app, including the New Hampshire White Mountains, Adirondack High Peaks, Mount Monadnock, the Pioneer Valley, Acadia, Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, Rocky Mountain, Grand Canyon, Zion, Yosemite, Mount Rainier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Joshua Tree.

Each map shows shaded relief and contour lines from USGS elevation data, plus trails, roads, streams, lakes, cliffs, peaks, saddles, springs, shelters, huts, campsites, viewpoints, waterfalls, parking and trailheads from OpenStreetMap. Drag to pan, scroll to zoom, and hover for details.

Downloading more regions

Download Region… in Explore Regions fetches a new area on request. Each download is checked before it is imported, and is then kept on your computer, so the region works offline from then on.

Finding a place

The search in Explore Regions finds trails, trailheads, parking lots and summits. The Hikes tab lists hikes you've already built in the region; pick one to open it in the Trail Composer.

Brainstorm a Hike

The guided interview on the AI Brainstorm page asks, one topic at a time, about the hike you want: who's coming, the distance, how much climbing, whether it should be a loop, and whether dogs or kids are along. It ends with ranked route suggestions in the region you picked. Open any suggestion in the Trail Composer to adjust it.

The Trail Composer

Click on the map to add a waypoint. Aegis Hiker snaps the click to the nearest trail point and finds the route along open trails from the previous waypoint. Build loops, out-and-backs or point-to-point traverses.

  • The elevation profile is colored by grade, so the steep pitches stand out.
  • The pace chart shows the time for each section.
  • Start Hike Here (from a trailhead in Explore) begins a route you add to segment by segment — handy for recording a hike you already walked.
  • Save Hike stores the route; you'll be offered to log it as hiked straight away.

Timing & Pace

Times are estimated from established hiking rules and adjusted for the route and for you:

RuleWhat it does
NaismithOne hour per 5 km, plus one hour per 600 m of climb.
LangmuirAdjusts for descents — gentle ones speed you up, steep ones slow you down.
ToblerA smooth curve of walking speed against slope.

On top of that, estimates account for pack weight, rough or technical ground, altitude above about 2,400 m (8,000 ft), and your fitness. Treat them as a planning guide and set a turnaround time.

The AI Trail Guide

The trail guide panel answers questions about the region and your route, and can propose changes — another trail, a shorter variant, an addition to the gear list. Each proposal shows exactly what would change, and nothing changes until you accept.

Your Phone at the Trailhead

Open Mobile Companion and scan the QR code with your phone while both are on your home Wi-Fi. The companion opens in the phone's browser — nothing to install.

  1. Tap Cache Pack Offline to store the region and your routes on the phone. Do this at home, before you leave.
  2. At the trailhead, the map, your position and the route work with no cell signal.
  3. Found mud, ice or a closure? Tap the condition chips (Avoid Muddy, Avoid Icy, Avoid Overgrown, Avoid Closed) and the trails are re-evaluated offline.
  4. Record your GPS track as you walk; the phone warns you if you are more than about 45 m off the trail.
  5. Back home on the same Wi-Fi, sync the track to your computer.

The phone talks to your computer directly over your own network, never through a relay. Keep the screen on or the browser open while recording, as phones may pause background pages.

Safety & Leave-Behind Sheet

Use File → Export Leave-Behind Safety PDF before heading out. It lists your planned route, waypoints, turnaround time and who to call if you're overdue — print it or send it to someone you trust.

Always carry the ten essentials: navigation, headlamp, sun protection, first aid, knife or repair kit, fire starter, emergency shelter, extra food, extra water and extra layers — especially above treeline.

Aegis Hiker is a planning aid. Trails close and conditions change, and map data can be out of date. Check with the land manager before you go, and turn back when conditions call for it.

Logging a Hike

Trace the hike you walked in the Trail Composer (or sync it from your phone), then click ✓ I Hiked This Trail. Add who came along and the weather — Look Up Weather can fetch it from Open-Meteo, if you choose to.

Photos from Aegis Photo Voyager

When you log a hike, Aegis Hiker looks for geotagged photos in your Aegis Photo Voyager library taken within a corridor around the trail (150 m by default) and places each one at its distance and elevation along the route. Photo Voyager's AI descriptions and tags come along.

  • Photo Voyager's library is found automatically, or you can choose the file.
  • It is opened read-only, and your photo files are never touched.
  • Review Photos… shows thumbnails so you can leave some out; they stay out even when Photo Voyager rescans.

Replay & Hike Websites

Re-Experience Hike

The Re-experience Hike page shows the hike on the map with an animated hiker you can scrub along the route, the elevation profile alongside, and clickable photo pins. Play 3D Replay flies the hike across the terrain.

Create Website…

Writes a folder you can open in any browser or put on your own web space:

  • a summary page — date, times, area, people, weather, distance, climb, high point, and the trails taken;
  • Play the Hike, the 3D replay in the browser;
  • a photo gallery, each photo with its time and place on the trail;
  • an interactive topographic map with the elevation profile.

Optionally protect it with a password: the data and every photo are encrypted (AES-256-GCM) and decrypted in the visitor's browser. Protected sites must be served over https://. Upload Website publishes the folder over FTP or FTPS; the FTP password is never saved.

Your Data & Privacy

  • No analytics, crash reporting or accounts.
  • Regions, routes, hikes, tracks and settings are stored in ~/.aegishiker/, and are kept when the package is removed or updated.
  • The AI runs locally through Ollama.
  • The internet is used only when you ask: downloading a region (OpenStreetMap and public elevation data), looking up weather for a logged hike (Open-Meteo), and uploading a hike website to the server you choose.
  • The phone companion is served from your computer over your home Wi-Fi, and the phone syncs back to it directly.

Beta & Licensing

Aegis Hiker is in Beta and free to use. There is no license charge during the Beta: every feature is available without paying anything.

Updating the app keeps your regions, routes and hikes. You may find rough edges — please tell us about them.

In the future we may limit some features unless a one-time license is purchased. One-time means you pay once; it is not a subscription.

Troubleshooting

The AI doesn't answer

Check that Ollama is running (ollama serve) and the model is installed (ollama pull qwen2.5:7b). On a slow computer, try qwen2.5:3b.

The phone can't open the page

The phone must be on the same Wi-Fi as your computer — not on mobile data or a guest network. A firewall may block the app; allow Aegis Hiker on private networks. Some routers isolate Wi-Fi devices from each other ("client isolation").

No photos are found

Only photos with GPS coordinates can be matched. Make sure Photo Voyager has scanned the folder with your hike photos, that the camera's clock was right, and try a wider corridor. With the Snap, photos on USB drives need the removable-media connection.

Reporting a problem

Use our contact page. Please leave out personal details we don't need — like where you live or hike.

Contact Support