CLI Reference

Run a model

ollama run gemma4

Launch integrations

ollama launch

Configure and launch external applications to use Ollama models. This provides an interactive way to set up and start integrations with supported apps.

Supported integrations

• OpenCode - Open-source coding assistant
• Claude Code - Anthropic's agentic coding tool
• Codex - OpenAI's coding assistant
• VS Code - Microsoft's IDE with built-in AI chat
• Droid - Factory's AI coding agent

Examples

Launch an integration interactively:

ollama launch

Launch a specific integration:

ollama launch claude

Launch with a specific model:

ollama launch claude --model qwen3.5

Configure without launching:

ollama launch droid --config

Multiline input

For multiline input, you can wrap text with """:

>>> """Hello,
... world!
... """
I'm a basic program that prints the famous "Hello, world!" message to the console.

Multimodal models

ollama run gemma4 "What's in this image? /Users/jmorgan/Desktop/smile.png"

Generate embeddings

ollama run embeddinggemma "Hello world"

Output is a JSON array:

echo "Hello world" | ollama run nomic-embed-text

Ask a decision model

ollama run nimble --ask "Is a refund being requested?" < ticket.txt

ollama run nimble --ask "Which team should handle this?" \
  --choice billing="Payments and refunds" \
  --choice technical="Software problems" < ticket.txt

ollama run nimble --ask "How urgent is this?" \
  --level "Routine" \
  --level "Soon" \
  --level "Immediate" < ticket.txt

The state is piped in or given after the model name, as text or JSON. Each --ask question is answered yes or no, unless it's followed by labels to choose from (--choice) or levels to score it on (--level). See Decision.

Speak with a speech model

ollama run phonon "Hello from Ollama."

ollama run phonon --voice Zoey "Hi, this is Zoey."

ollama run phonon "Save this to a file." > speech.wav

The audio plays through your speakers, or is written as a WAV file when the output is redirected. Run it without text to speak each line you type. See Speech.

Download a model

ollama pull gemma4

Remove a model

ollama rm gemma4

List models

ollama ls

Sign in to Ollama

ollama signin

Sign out of Ollama

ollama signout

Create a customized model

First, create a Modelfile

FROM gemma4
SYSTEM """You are a happy cat."""

Then run ollama create:

ollama create -f Modelfile

List running models

ollama ps

Stop a running model

ollama stop gemma4

Start Ollama

ollama serve

To view a list of environment variables that can be set run ollama serve --help