🦙 Ollama MCP Server

Supercharge your AI assistant with local LLM access

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes the complete Ollama SDK as MCP tools, enabling seamless integration between your local LLM models and MCP-compatible applications like Claude Desktop and Cline.

Features • Installation • Available Tools • Configuration • Development

---

✨ Features

• ☁️ Ollama Cloud Support - Full integration with Ollama's cloud platform
• 🔧 14 Comprehensive Tools - Full access to Ollama's SDK functionality
• 🔄 Hot-Swap Architecture - Automatic tool discovery with zero-config
• 🎯 Type-Safe - Built with TypeScript and Zod validation
• 📊 High Test Coverage - 96%+ coverage with comprehensive test suite
• 🚀 Zero Dependencies - Minimal footprint, maximum performance
• 🔌 Drop-in Integration - Works with Claude Desktop, Cline, and other MCP clients
• 🌐 Web Search & Fetch - Real-time web search and content extraction via Ollama Cloud
• 🔀 Hybrid Mode - Use local and cloud models seamlessly in one server

💡 Level Up Your Ollama Experience with Claude Code and Desktop

The Complete Package: Tools + Knowledge

This MCP server gives Claude the tools to interact with Ollama - but you'll get even more value by also installing the Ollama Skill from the Skillsforge Marketplace:

• 🚗 This MCP = The Car - All the tools and capabilities
• 🎓 Ollama Skill = Driving Lessons - Expert knowledge on how to use them effectively

The Ollama Skill teaches Claude:

• Best practices for model selection and configuration
• Optimal prompting strategies for different Ollama models
• When to use chat vs generate, embeddings, and other tools
• Performance optimization and troubleshooting
• Advanced features like tool calling and function support

Install both for the complete experience:

1. ✅ This MCP server (tools)
2. ✅ Ollama Skill (expertise)

Result: Claude doesn't just have the car - it knows how to drive! 🏎️

📦 Installation

Quick Start with Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ollama": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ollama-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Global Installation

npm install -g ollama-mcp

For Cline (VS Code)

Add to your Cline MCP settings (cline_mcp_settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ollama": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ollama-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

🛠️ Available Tools

Model Management

Tool	Description
ollama_list	List all available local models
ollama_show	Get detailed information about a specific model
ollama_pull	Download models from Ollama library
ollama_push	Push models to Ollama library
ollama_copy	Create a copy of an existing model
ollama_delete	Remove models from local storage
ollama_create	Create custom models from Modelfile

Model Operations

Tool	Description
ollama_ps	List currently running models
ollama_generate	Generate text completions
ollama_chat	Interactive chat with models (supports tools/functions)
ollama_embed	Generate embeddings for text

Web Tools (Ollama Cloud)

Tool	Description
ollama_web_search	Search the web with customizable result limits (requires OLLAMA_API_KEY)
ollama_web_fetch	Fetch and parse web page content (requires OLLAMA_API_KEY)

Note: Web tools require an Ollama Cloud API key. They connect to https://ollama.com/api for web search and fetch operations.

⚙️ Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
OLLAMA_HOST	http://127.0.0.1:11434	Ollama server endpoint (use https://ollama.com for cloud)
OLLAMA_API_KEY	-	API key for Ollama Cloud (required for web tools and cloud models)

Custom Ollama Host

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ollama": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ollama-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OLLAMA_HOST": "http://localhost:11434"
      }
    }
  }
}

Ollama Cloud Configuration

To use Ollama's cloud platform with web search and fetch capabilities:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ollama": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ollama-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OLLAMA_HOST": "https://ollama.com",
        "OLLAMA_API_KEY": "your-ollama-cloud-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cloud Features:

• ☁️ Access cloud-hosted models
• 🔍 Web search with ollama_web_search (requires API key)
• 📄 Web fetch with ollama_web_fetch (requires API key)
• 🚀 Faster inference on cloud infrastructure

Get your API key: Visit ollama.com to sign up and obtain your API key.

Hybrid Mode (Local + Cloud)

You can use both local and cloud models by pointing to your local Ollama instance while providing an API key:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ollama": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ollama-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OLLAMA_HOST": "http://127.0.0.1:11434",
        "OLLAMA_API_KEY": "your-ollama-cloud-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

This configuration:

• ✅ Runs local models from your Ollama instance
• ✅ Enables cloud-only web search and fetch tools
• ✅ Best of both worlds: privacy + web connectivity

🎯 Usage Examples

Chat with a Model

// MCP clients can invoke:
{
  "tool": "ollama_chat",
  "arguments": {
    "model": "llama3.2:latest",
    "messages": [
      { "role": "user", "content": "Explain quantum computing" }
    ]
  }
}

Generate Embeddings

{
  "tool": "ollama_embed",
  "arguments": {
    "model": "nomic-embed-text",
    "input": ["Hello world", "Embeddings are great"]
  }
}

Web Search

{
  "tool": "ollama_web_search",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "latest AI developments",
    "max_results": 5
  }
}

🏗️ Architecture

This server uses a hot-swap autoloader pattern:

src/
├── index.ts          # Entry point (27 lines)
├── server.ts         # MCP server creation
├── autoloader.ts     # Dynamic tool discovery
└── tools/            # Tool implementations
    ├── chat.ts       # Each exports toolDefinition
    ├── generate.ts
    └── ...

Key Benefits:

• Add new tools by dropping files in src/tools/
• Zero server code changes required
• Each tool is independently testable
• 100% function coverage on all tools

🧪 Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js v16+
• npm or pnpm
• Ollama running locally

Setup

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/rawveg/ollama-mcp.git
cd ollama-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build project
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

# Run tests with coverage
npm run test:coverage

Test Coverage

Statements   : 96.37%
Branches     : 84.82%
Functions    : 100%
Lines        : 96.37%

Adding a New Tool

1. Create src/tools/your-tool.ts:

import { ToolDefinition } from '../autoloader.js';
import { Ollama } from 'ollama';
import { ResponseFormat } from '../types.js';

export const toolDefinition: ToolDefinition = {
  name: 'ollama_your_tool',
  description: 'Your tool description',
  inputSchema: {
    type: 'object',
    properties: {
      param: { type: 'string' }
    },
    required: ['param']
  },
  handler: async (ollama, args, format) => {
    // Implementation
    return 'result';
  }
};

2. Create tests in tests/tools/your-tool.test.ts
3. Done! The autoloader discovers it automatically.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these guidelines:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Write tests - We maintain 96%+ coverage
4. Commit with clear messages (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
5. Push to your branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
6. Open a Pull Request

Code Quality Standards

• All new tools must export toolDefinition
• Maintain ≥80% test coverage
• Follow existing TypeScript patterns
• Use Zod schemas for input validation

📄 License

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).

See LICENSE for details.

🔗 Related Projects

• Skillsforge Marketplace - Claude Code skills including the Ollama Skill
• Ollama - Get up and running with large language models locally
• Model Context Protocol - Open standard for AI assistant integration
• Claude Desktop - Anthropic's desktop application
• Cline - VS Code AI assistant

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built with:

• Ollama SDK - Official Ollama JavaScript library
• MCP SDK - Model Context Protocol SDK
• Zod - TypeScript-first schema validation

---

⬆ back to top

Made with ❤️ by Tim Green