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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ollama.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Development

Install prerequisites:
  • Go
  • CMake 3.24 or newer
  • C/C++ compiler: Clang on macOS, Visual Studio 2022 C++ tools on Windows, or GCC/Clang on Linux
  • Ninja in PATH is recommended, especially on Windows
For pure Go iteration against an existing native payload, run Ollama from the repository root: 
go run . serve
[!NOTE] Ollama includes native code compiled with CGO. From time to time these data structures can change and CGO can get out of sync resulting in unexpected crashes. You can force a full build of the native code by running go clean -cache first.

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Native build model

For a fresh checkout, or after changing native code, build from the repository root. On macOS arm64, this builds Metal inference. On all other platforms this builds CPU-only inference. It builds the Go binary at the repository root and installs the native runtime payload under build/lib/ollama. 
cmake -B build .
cmake --build build --parallel 8
./ollama serve
To install into a standard prefix layout: 
cmake --install build --prefix /path/to/install
On all platforms except macOS arm64, to build GPU backends select the backends explicitly: 
cmake -B build . -DOLLAMA_LLAMA_BACKENDS="cuda_v13;vulkan"
cmake --build build --parallel 8
Supported backend values are cuda_v12, cuda_v13, rocm_v7_1, rocm_v7_2, vulkan, cuda_jetpack5, and cuda_jetpack6. Use standard CMake architecture overrides to narrow GPU builds for local hardware: 
# CUDA
cmake -B build . -DOLLAMA_LLAMA_BACKENDS=cuda_v13 -DCMAKE_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES=native

# ROCm / HIP
cmake -B build . -DOLLAMA_LLAMA_BACKENDS=rocm_v7_2 -DCMAKE_HIP_ARCHITECTURES=gfx1100
You can tune GGML build options by setting GGML_* values during configure. For example, to build CUDA v12 for Pascal without flash attention kernels: 
cmake -B build . -DOLLAMA_LLAMA_BACKENDS=cuda_v12 -DCMAKE_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES=61 -DGGML_CUDA_FA=OFF

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macOS (Apple Silicon)

Additional prerequisites: MLX Metal requires the Metal toolchain. Install Xcode first, then: 
xcodebuild -downloadComponent MetalToolchain

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Windows

Additional prerequisites: For Ninja builds, run CMake from a Developer PowerShell/Command Prompt or another shell where the Visual Studio compiler is available.
Building for Vulkan requires VULKAN_SDK environment variable: PowerShell 
$env:VULKAN_SDK="C:\VulkanSDK\<version>"
CMD 
set VULKAN_SDK=C:\VulkanSDK\<version>

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Windows (ARM)

Windows ARM does not support additional acceleration libraries at this time.

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Linux

Additional prerequisites:
  • (Optional) AMD GPU support
  • (Optional) NVIDIA GPU support
  • (Optional) Vulkan GPU support
    • Vulkan SDK - useful for AMD/Intel GPUs
    • Or install via package manager: sudo apt install vulkan-sdk (Ubuntu/Debian) or sudo dnf install vulkan-sdk (Fedora/CentOS)
  • (Optional) MLX engine support
    • CUDA 13+ SDK
    • cuDNN 9+
    • OpenBLAS/LAPACK: sudo apt install libopenblas-dev liblapack-dev liblapacke-dev (Ubuntu/Debian)
[!IMPORTANT] Ensure prerequisites are in PATH before running CMake.

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MLX Engine (Optional)

The MLX engine enables running safetensor based models. On macOS arm64, MLX is enabled by default. On other platforms, MLX backends are selected with OLLAMA_MLX_BACKENDS.

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CUDA

Requires CUDA 13+ and cuDNN 9+. 
cmake -B build . -DOLLAMA_MLX_BACKENDS=cuda_v13
cmake --build build --parallel 8

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Local MLX source overrides

To build against a local checkout of MLX and/or MLX-C (useful for development), set environment variables before running CMake: 
export OLLAMA_MLX_SOURCE=/path/to/mlx
export OLLAMA_MLX_C_SOURCE=/path/to/mlx-c
On macOS arm64: 
OLLAMA_MLX_SOURCE=../mlx OLLAMA_MLX_C_SOURCE=../mlx-c cmake -B build .
cmake --build build --parallel 8
For CUDA: 
$env:OLLAMA_MLX_SOURCE="../mlx"
$env:OLLAMA_MLX_C_SOURCE="../mlx-c"
cmake -B build . -DOLLAMA_MLX_BACKENDS=cuda_v13
cmake --build build --parallel 8

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Docker

docker build .

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ROCm

docker build --build-arg FLAVOR=rocm .

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Running tests

To run tests, use go test: 
go test ./...

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Library detection

Ollama looks for native helper binaries and acceleration libraries in installed and local development layouts:
  • ../lib/ollama for standard installs where ollama is under bin/
  • ./lib/ollama for Windows release-style payloads and local dist output
  • . for macOS release artifacts that colocate helpers with ollama
  • build/lib/ollama and dist/<platform>/lib/ollama for local development builds
If the libraries are not found, Ollama will not run with any acceleration libraries.