openclaw/docs/providers/ollama.md

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Run OpenClaw with Ollama (local LLM runtime)	You want to run OpenClaw with local models via Ollama You need Ollama setup and configuration guidance	Ollama

Ollama

Ollama is a local LLM runtime that makes it easy to run open-source models on your machine. OpenClaw integrates with Ollama's native API (/api/chat), supports streaming and tool calling, and can auto-discover local Ollama models when you opt in with OLLAMA_API_KEY (or an auth profile) and do not define an explicit models.providers.ollama entry.

**Remote Ollama users**: Do not use the `/v1` OpenAI-compatible URL (`http://host:11434/v1`) with OpenClaw. This breaks tool calling and models may output raw tool JSON as plain text. Use the native Ollama API URL instead: `baseUrl: "http://host:11434"` (no `/v1`).

Quick start

1. Install Ollama: https://ollama.com/download

2. Pull a local model if you want local inference:

ollama pull glm-4.7-flash
# or
ollama pull gpt-oss:20b
# or
ollama pull llama3.3

3. If you want Ollama Cloud models too, sign in:

ollama signin

4. Run onboarding and choose Ollama:

openclaw onboard

• Local: local models only
• Cloud + Local: local models plus Ollama Cloud models
• Cloud models such as kimi-k2.5:cloud, minimax-m2.5:cloud, and glm-5:cloud do not require a local ollama pull

OpenClaw currently suggests:

• local default: glm-4.7-flash
• cloud defaults: kimi-k2.5:cloud, minimax-m2.5:cloud, glm-5:cloud

5. If you prefer manual setup, enable Ollama for OpenClaw directly (any value works; Ollama doesn't require a real key):

# Set environment variable
export OLLAMA_API_KEY="ollama-local"

# Or configure in your config file
openclaw config set models.providers.ollama.apiKey "ollama-local"

6. Inspect or switch models:

openclaw models list
openclaw models set ollama/glm-4.7-flash

7. Or set the default in config:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "ollama/glm-4.7-flash" },
    },
  },
}

Model discovery (implicit provider)

When you set OLLAMA_API_KEY (or an auth profile) and do not define models.providers.ollama, OpenClaw discovers models from the local Ollama instance at http://127.0.0.1:11434:

• Queries /api/tags
• Uses best-effort /api/show lookups to read contextWindow when available
• Marks reasoning with a model-name heuristic (r1, reasoning, think)
• Sets maxTokens to the default Ollama max-token cap used by OpenClaw
• Sets all costs to 0

This avoids manual model entries while keeping the catalog aligned with the local Ollama instance.

To see what models are available:

ollama list
openclaw models list

To add a new model, simply pull it with Ollama:

ollama pull mistral

The new model will be automatically discovered and available to use.

If you set models.providers.ollama explicitly, auto-discovery is skipped and you must define models manually (see below).

Configuration

Basic setup (implicit discovery)

The simplest way to enable Ollama is via environment variable:

export OLLAMA_API_KEY="ollama-local"

Explicit setup (manual models)

Use explicit config when:

• Ollama runs on another host/port.
• You want to force specific context windows or model lists.
• You want fully manual model definitions.

{
  models: {
    providers: {
      ollama: {
        baseUrl: "http://ollama-host:11434",
        apiKey: "ollama-local",
        api: "ollama",
        models: [
          {
            id: "gpt-oss:20b",
            name: "GPT-OSS 20B",
            reasoning: false,
            input: ["text"],
            cost: { input: 0, output: 0, cacheRead: 0, cacheWrite: 0 },
            contextWindow: 8192,
            maxTokens: 8192 * 10
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

If OLLAMA_API_KEY is set, you can omit apiKey in the provider entry and OpenClaw will fill it for availability checks.

Custom base URL (explicit config)

If Ollama is running on a different host or port (explicit config disables auto-discovery, so define models manually):

{
  models: {
    providers: {
      ollama: {
        apiKey: "ollama-local",
        baseUrl: "http://ollama-host:11434", // No /v1 - use native Ollama API URL
        api: "ollama", // Set explicitly to guarantee native tool-calling behavior
      },
    },
  },
}

Do not add `/v1` to the URL. The `/v1` path uses OpenAI-compatible mode, where tool calling is not reliable. Use the base Ollama URL without a path suffix.

Model selection

Once configured, all your Ollama models are available:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: {
        primary: "ollama/gpt-oss:20b",
        fallbacks: ["ollama/llama3.3", "ollama/qwen2.5-coder:32b"],
      },
    },
  },
}

Advanced

Reasoning models

OpenClaw treats models with names such as deepseek-r1, reasoning, or think as reasoning-capable by default:

ollama pull deepseek-r1:32b

Model Costs

Ollama is free and runs locally, so all model costs are set to $0.

Streaming Configuration

OpenClaw's Ollama integration uses the native Ollama API (/api/chat) by default, which fully supports streaming and tool calling simultaneously. No special configuration is needed.

Legacy OpenAI-Compatible Mode

**Tool calling is not reliable in OpenAI-compatible mode.** Use this mode only if you need OpenAI format for a proxy and do not depend on native tool calling behavior.

If you need to use the OpenAI-compatible endpoint instead (e.g., behind a proxy that only supports OpenAI format), set api: "openai-completions" explicitly:

{
  models: {
    providers: {
      ollama: {
        baseUrl: "http://ollama-host:11434/v1",
        api: "openai-completions",
        injectNumCtxForOpenAICompat: true, // default: true
        apiKey: "ollama-local",
        models: [...]
      }
    }
  }
}

This mode may not support streaming + tool calling simultaneously. You may need to disable streaming with params: { streaming: false } in model config.

When api: "openai-completions" is used with Ollama, OpenClaw injects options.num_ctx by default so Ollama does not silently fall back to a 4096 context window. If your proxy/upstream rejects unknown options fields, disable this behavior:

{
  models: {
    providers: {
      ollama: {
        baseUrl: "http://ollama-host:11434/v1",
        api: "openai-completions",
        injectNumCtxForOpenAICompat: false,
        apiKey: "ollama-local",
        models: [...]
      }
    }
  }
}

Context windows

For auto-discovered models, OpenClaw uses the context window reported by Ollama when available, otherwise it falls back to the default Ollama context window used by OpenClaw. You can override contextWindow and maxTokens in explicit provider config.

Troubleshooting

Ollama not detected

Make sure Ollama is running and that you set OLLAMA_API_KEY (or an auth profile), and that you did not define an explicit models.providers.ollama entry:

ollama serve

And that the API is accessible:

curl http://localhost:11434/api/tags

No models available

If your model is not listed, either:

• Pull the model locally, or
• Define the model explicitly in models.providers.ollama.

To add models:

ollama list  # See what's installed
ollama pull glm-4.7-flash
ollama pull gpt-oss:20b
ollama pull llama3.3     # Or another model

Connection refused

Check that Ollama is running on the correct port:

# Check if Ollama is running
ps aux | grep ollama

# Or restart Ollama
ollama serve

See Also

• Model Providers - Overview of all providers
• Model Selection - How to choose models
• Configuration - Full config reference