You don't need an API key or a cloud subscription to use LLMs. Ollama lets you run models locally on your machine — completely free, completely private. Here's how to set it up and start building with it.
What is Ollama?
Ollama is a tool that downloads, manages, and serves LLMs locally. It exposes an OpenAI-compatible API at localhost:11434, so any code that works with the OpenAI API works with Ollama — zero changes.
Installation
# Linux / WSL
curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh
# macOS
brew install ollama
# Windows
# Download from https://ollama.com/download
Start the server:
ollama serve
Pick a Model
# Code-focused (best for dev tools)
ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:7b # 4.7GB, good balance
ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:1.5b # 1.0GB, fast, good enough for many tasks
ollama pull deepseek-coder-v2 # 8.9GB, top quality
# General purpose
ollama pull llama3.1:8b # 4.7GB, Meta's latest
ollama pull mistral:7b # 4.1GB, fast and capable
My recommendation: start with qwen2.5-coder:1.5b for speed, upgrade to 7b when you need quality.
Your First API Call
Ollama serves an OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Here's a call with plain fetch:
const response = await fetch("http://localhost:11434/v1/chat/completions", {
method: "POST",
headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
body: JSON.stringify({
model: "qwen2.5-coder:7b",
messages: [
{ role: "system", content: "You are a helpful assistant." },
{ role: "user", content: "Explain what a closure is in JavaScript." },
],
temperature: 0,
stream: false,
}),
});
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.choices[0].message.content);
That's it. No API key, no SDK, no account.
Structured Output (JSON Mode)
The key to building real tools with LLMs is getting structured output. Tell the model to respond with JSON:
const response = await fetch("http://localhost:11434/v1/chat/completions", {
method: "POST",
headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
body: JSON.stringify({
model: "qwen2.5-coder:7b",
messages: [
{
role: "system",
content: `Respond with ONLY valid JSON matching this schema:
{ "summary": "string", "topics": ["string"], "difficulty": "beginner|intermediate|advanced" }`,
},
{
role: "user",
content: "Analyze this article topic: Building REST APIs with Express.js",
},
],
temperature: 0,
stream: false,
}),
});
Tip: always validate the response with Zod or a similar schema validator. Smaller models sometimes return invalid JSON.
Building a Provider Abstraction
If you want your app to work with both Ollama (local) and Claude/OpenAI (cloud), create a simple interface:
interface LlmProvider {
chat(system: string, messages: Message[]): Promise<string>;
}
class OllamaProvider implements LlmProvider {
constructor(private model: string) {}
async chat(system: string, messages: Message[]): Promise<string> {
const response = await fetch("http://localhost:11434/v1/chat/completions", {
method: "POST",
headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
body: JSON.stringify({
model: this.model,
messages: [{ role: "system", content: system }, ...messages],
temperature: 0,
stream: false,
}),
});
const data = await response.json();
return data.choices[0].message.content;
}
}
Now your code doesn't care where the model runs. Swap OllamaProvider for AnthropicProvider with a flag.
Performance Tips
First call is slow — the model loads into memory. Subsequent calls are fast.
Keep the server running — don't start/stop per request.
Use smaller models for dev —1.5bfor iteration,7bfor production quality.
Settemperature: 0for deterministic output (important for structured responses).
Add a timeout — local models on CPU can take minutes for long prompts.
When to Use Local vs Cloud
| Use Case | Local (Ollama) | Cloud (Claude/GPT) |
|---|---|---|
| Development | Great | Expensive |
| Privacy-sensitive data | Required | Risky |
| Production quality | Good (7b+) | Best |
| Speed | Depends on hardware | Fast |
| Cost | Free | Per-token |
What I Built With It
spectr-ai — an AI smart contract auditor that works with both Claude and Ollama. The --model ollama:qwen2.5-coder:1.5b flag runs everything locally, free, no API key.
Local LLMs are good enough for real developer tools. The quality gap is closing fast.
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