chat_ollama: Chat with a local Ollama model

In ellmer: Chat with Large Language Models

Chat with a local Ollama model

Description

To use chat_ollama() first download and install Ollama. Then install some models either from the command line (e.g. with ⁠ollama pull llama3.1⁠) or within R using ollamar (e.g. ollamar::pull("llama3.1")).

This function is a lightweight wrapper around chat_openai() with the defaults tweaked for ollama.

Known limitations

• Tool calling is not supported with streaming (i.e. when echo is "text" or "all")

• Models can only use 2048 input tokens, and there's no way to get them to use more, except by creating a custom model with a different default.

• Tool calling generally seems quite weak, at least with the models I have tried it with.

Usage

chat_ollama(
  system_prompt = NULL,
  turns = NULL,
  base_url = "http://localhost:11434",
  model,
  seed = NULL,
  api_args = list(),
  echo = NULL
)

Arguments

system_prompt	A system prompt to set the behavior of the assistant.
turns	A list of Turns to start the chat with (i.e., continuing a previous conversation). If not provided, the conversation begins from scratch.
base_url	The base URL to the endpoint; the default uses OpenAI.
model	The model to use for the chat. The default, NULL, will pick a reasonable default, and tell you about. We strongly recommend explicitly choosing a model for all but the most casual use.
seed	Optional integer seed that ChatGPT uses to try and make output more reproducible.
api_args	Named list of arbitrary extra arguments appended to the body of every chat API call.
echo	One of the following options: none: don't emit any output (default when running in a function). text: echo text output as it streams in (default when running at the console). all: echo all input and output. Note this only affects the chat() method.

Value

A Chat object.

See Also

Other chatbots: chat_bedrock(), chat_claude(), chat_cortex_analyst(), chat_databricks(), chat_deepseek(), chat_gemini(), chat_github(), chat_groq(), chat_openai(), chat_openrouter(), chat_perplexity()

Examples

## Not run: 
chat <- chat_ollama(model = "llama3.2")
chat$chat("Tell me three jokes about statisticians")

## End(Not run)

ellmer documentation built on April 4, 2025, 3:53 a.m.