My Laptop Is Too Slow to Chat With an AI, So I Gave It the Night Shift

Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 3: Slow and Steady 🦥

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 3: Slow and Steady

My Downloads folder is where files go to be forgotten. invoice (3).pdf. Screenshot 2026-10-12 141502.png. Document1.docx, which could be anything. Every few months I promise myself I'll clean it up, and every few months I don't.

So I built sloth, about 200 lines of Python that do it while I sleep. Every night it goes through my Downloads folder with Gemma 4 running on my laptop. It reads each document, looks at each image, gives the file a name a human would pick, and moves it into a folder. In the morning, a report is waiting:

invoice (3).pdf -> Finance/2026-10-01_acme_cloud_services_invoice.pdf Document1.docx -> Work/2026-10-01_sprint_meeting_notes_prakhar_meera_jonas.docx Screenshot 2026-10-12 141502.png -> Screenshots/2026-10-01_error_message_screenshot_python_app.png export (1).csv -> Finance/2026-10-01_salary_and_transaction_report.csv VSCodeUserSetup-x64-1.105.1.exe -> Installers/VSCodeUserSetup-x64-1.105.1.exe scan0001.pdf -> left alone (Gemma wasn't sure) Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode If I don't like what it did, python sloth.py undo ~/Downloads puts everything back.

Anyone with a Downloads folder gets to be a little lazier, which is everyone. It's especially for people whose laptop, like mine, has no business running AI.

Here's a real run on my test folder. Read the timings, because they're the point:

$ python sloth.py tidy ~/sloth-test [1/13] 2409.11873v2.pdf -> Reading/2026-10-01_quantization_aware_training_paper.pdf (14s) [2/13] data.bin -> left alone, unknown type [3/13] Document1.docx -> Work/2026-10-01_sprint_meeting_notes_prakhar_meera_jonas.docx (13s) [4/13] e-ticket.pdf -> Personal/2026-10-01_train_ticket_booking_confirmation.pdf (11s) [5/13] export (1).csv -> Finance/2026-10-01_salary_and_transaction_report.csv (15s) [6/13] image (2).png -> Images/2026-10-01_quarterly_revenue_by_region_report.png (21s) [7/13] invoice (3).pdf -> Finance/2026-10-01_acme_cloud_services_invoice.pdf (11s) [8/13] notes.txt -> Personal/2026-10-01_banana_bread_recipe_personal.txt (11s) [9/13] photos_backup.zip -> Archives/photos_backup.zip (0s) [10/13] resume_final2.docx -> Personal/2026-10-01_resume_final_dok_prakhar_a.docx (11s) [11/13] scan0001.pdf -> left alone, not sure (9s) [12/13] Screenshot 2026-10-12 141502.png -> Screenshots/2026-10-01_error_message_screenshot_python_app.png (19s) [13/13] VSCodeUserSetup-x64-1.105.1.exe -> Installers/VSCodeUserSetup-x64-1.105.1.exe (0s) Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode The folder actually held 15 files. The other two are skipped on purpose: a boarding pass I'd downloaded that day (I might still need it) and a half-finished Ubuntu download.

Tidies your Downloads folder overnight with a local Gemma model, so you don't have to.

While you sleep, sloth reads each file (or looks at it, for images), gives it a real name, and files it into a folder. In the morning there's a SLOTH_REPORT.md waiting for you, and one command puts everything back if you don't like it.

invoice (3).pdf -> Finance/2026-10-01_acme_cloud_services_invoice.pdf Screenshot 2026-10-12 141502.png -> Screenshots/2026-10-01_error_message_screenshot_python_app.png notes.txt -> Personal/2026-10-01_banana_bread_recipe_personal.txt VSCodeUserSetup-x64-1.105.1.exe -> Installers/VSCodeUserSetup-x64-1.105.1.exe scan0001.pdf -> left alone (Gemma wasn't sure) Everything runs on your machine through Ollama. No file, filename, or snippet ever leaves it.

ollama pull gemma4:e2b-it-qat pip install -r requirements.txt Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Use python sloth.py tidy ~ /Downloads --dry-run # show the plan, move nothing python sloth.py tidy ~ /Downloads # do it python sloth.py undo ~ /Downloads # put the last run back Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Run it every night Windows (PowerShell)…