Your first local LLM, start to finish
Install Ollama, pull Llama 3.2 3B, chat with it, hit its API, and fix the five things that break on a first install. You finish with a working local LLM.
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#ollama
Posts on AI engineering, LLM systems, and software development.
The pitch for local LLMs in 2026
The case for running an LLM on the machine you already own. Privacy, no per-call cost, faster first token, no rate limits, and it works on a flight.
The runtimes: llama.cpp, Ollama, LM Studio
llama.cpp is the engine. Ollama and LM Studio wrap it. What each one does, when to reach for which, and why the OpenAI-compatible APIs are mostly but not entirely interchangeable.
Install Ollama
Get Ollama running on macOS, Linux, or Windows, pull your first model, and confirm it works with ollama list. The shortest path to a local LLM.