Local Model Integration (Ollama) - December 2025

When This Skill Activates

• User asks to "use local model" or "use ollama"
• Privacy-sensitive analysis needed (credentials, internal code)
• High-volume repetitive tasks (many quick queries)
• Offline work required
• User wants free/zero-cost assistance
• Research or explanation tasks
• Draft generation before Claude refinement

Critical Rule: Claude Does ALL Coding

Local models = Support tasks ONLY Claude (Opus/Sonnet) = ALL code writing/editing

Local models assist with understanding, not implementation.

Available Models (M3 Max 64GB)

Performance Optimizations (Active)

Environment variables configured in ~/.zshrc:

OLLAMA_FLASH_ATTENTION=1    # Faster inference
OLLAMA_KV_CACHE_TYPE=q8_0   # 47% memory savings
OLLAMA_METAL=1              # Apple Silicon GPU
OLLAMA_MAX_LOADED_MODELS=3  # Keep models hot
OLLAMA_NUM_PARALLEL=4       # Parallel requests
OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE="10m"     # Avoid cold starts

Task Routing

Use Local Models For:

Claude Handles (NOT Local):

• Writing new code
• Editing existing code
• Bug fixes
• Test generation
• Refactoring
• Any file modifications

Quick Aliases (Terminal)

# Direct aliases
ask "What is dependency injection?"       # llama3.2 (<2s)
code "Explain this function"              # devstral:24b (68% SWE-Bench)
think "Quick comparison"                  # gpt-oss:20b
deep "Analyze this large codebase"        # qwen3-coder:30b (256K)
reason "Design a caching architecture"    # gpt-oss:120b (best reasoning)
vision                                    # llama4:scout (multimodal)

# Functions
ask_ai "Quick question"                   # Pipe to llama3.2
code_ai "Code explanation"                # Pipe to devstral
think_ai "Reasoning task"                 # Pipe to gpt-oss:20b
analyze_ai file.py "Review this"          # File + qwen3-coder

# Smart Router (auto-selects model)
ollama-router.py "your query"             # Routes to optimal model

Within Claude Conversation

Say: "Use local model to explain this" or "Ask ollama about..."

Claude will:

1. Route to appropriate local model via Bash
2. Get response
3. Integrate into conversation

Advanced: Intelligent Routing

For automatic model selection based on task complexity:

# Install RouteLLM (optional)
pip install routellm

# Routes simple→local, complex→cloud automatically
# 85% cost reduction while maintaining quality

Advanced: Semantic Caching

For repeated similar queries:

# Install GPTCache (optional)
pip install gptcache

# 10x cost reduction, 100x speed on cache hits

Cost Comparison

Model Selection Guide

Need speed?        → llama3.2 (2GB, <1s response)
Need context?      → qwen3-coder:30b (256K tokens)
Need code insight? → devstral:24b (68% SWE-Bench)
Need reasoning?    → gpt-oss:20b
Need vision?       → llama4:scout

Privacy Benefits

Local models keep sensitive data on your machine:

• API keys and credentials
• Internal business logic
• Proprietary algorithms
• Customer data analysis

Cloud Models via Ollama (Optional)

Access cloud-scale models through Ollama:

ollama run deepseek-v3.1:671b-cloud    # Best reasoning
ollama run qwen3-coder:480b-cloud      # Best coding

Anti-Patterns

• Using local models to write production code (quality risk)
• Skipping local for simple explanations (cost waste)
• Using llama3.2 for complex reasoning (wrong tool)
• Using large models for simple Q&A (slow, wasteful)
• Not using aliases (slower workflow)

Verification

# Check models
ollama list

# Check running models
ollama ps

# Test quick response
ask "Hello"

# Test code model
code "def fib(n): pass"

Monitoring

# Memory usage
ollama ps

# Model details
ollama show devstral:24b

# GPU utilization (Activity Monitor → GPU History)

Detailed Model Guide

See ~/.claude/skills/local-models/MODEL_GUIDE.md for:

• Detailed use cases per model
• Performance overlap zones
• When to use which model
• Chaining strategies
• Decision flowchart