cli-anything-ollama

Apps & Automation

Command-line interface for Ollama - Local LLM inference and model management via Ollama REST API. Designed for AI agents and power users who need to manage models, generate text, chat, and create embeddings without a GUI.

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cli-anything-ollama

Local LLM inference and model management via the Ollama REST API. Designed for AI agents and power users who need to manage models, generate text, chat, and create embeddings without a GUI.

Installation

This CLI is installed as part of the cli-anything-ollama package:

pip install cli-anything-ollama

Prerequisites:

Python 3.10+
Ollama must be installed and running (ollama serve)

Usage

Basic Commands

# Show help
cli-anything-ollama --help

# Start interactive REPL mode
cli-anything-ollama

# List available models
cli-anything-ollama model list

# Run with JSON output (for agent consumption)
cli-anything-ollama --json model list

REPL Mode

When invoked without a subcommand, the CLI enters an interactive REPL session:

cli-anything-ollama
# Enter commands interactively with tab-completion and history

Command Groups

Model

Model management commands.

Command	Description
`list`	List locally available models
`show`	Show model details (parameters, template, license)
`pull`	Download a model from the Ollama library
`rm`	Delete a model from local storage
`copy`	Copy a model to a new name
`ps`	List models currently loaded in memory

Generate

Text generation and chat commands.

Command	Description
`text`	Generate text from a prompt
`chat`	Send a chat completion request

Embed

Embedding generation commands.

Command	Description
`text`	Generate embeddings for text

Server

Server status and info commands.

Command	Description
`status`	Check if Ollama server is running
`version`	Show Ollama server version

Session

Session state commands.

Command	Description
`status`	Show current session state
`history`	Show chat history for current session

Examples

List and Pull Models

# List available models
cli-anything-ollama model list

# Pull a model
cli-anything-ollama model pull llama3.2

# Show model details
cli-anything-ollama model show llama3.2

Generate Text

# Stream text (default)
cli-anything-ollama generate text --model llama3.2 --prompt "Explain quantum computing in one sentence"

# Non-streaming with JSON output (for agents)
cli-anything-ollama --json generate text --model llama3.2 --prompt "Hello" --no-stream

Chat

# Single-turn chat
cli-anything-ollama generate chat --model llama3.2 --message "user:What is Python?"

# Multi-turn chat
cli-anything-ollama generate chat --model llama3.2 \
  --message "user:What is Python?" \
  --message "user:How does it compare to JavaScript?"

# Chat from JSON file
cli-anything-ollama generate chat --model llama3.2 --file messages.json

Embeddings

cli-anything-ollama embed text --model nomic-embed-text --input "Hello world"
cli-anything-ollama embed text --model nomic-embed-text --input "Hello" --input "World"

Interactive REPL Session

Start an interactive session for exploratory use.

cli-anything-ollama
# Enter commands interactively
# Use 'help' to see available commands

Connect to Remote Host

cli-anything-ollama --host http://192.168.1.100:11434 model list

State Management

The CLI maintains lightweight session state:

Current host URL: Configurable via --host
Chat history: Tracked for multi-turn conversations in REPL
Last used model: Shown in REPL prompt

Output Formats

All commands support dual output modes:

Human-readable (default): Tables, colors, formatted text
Machine-readable (--json flag): Structured JSON for agent consumption

# Human output
cli-anything-ollama model list

# JSON output for agents
cli-anything-ollama --json model list

For AI Agents

When using this CLI programmatically:

Always use --json flag for parseable output
Check return codes - 0 for success, non-zero for errors
Parse stderr for error messages on failure
Use --no-stream for generate/chat to get complete responses
Verify Ollama is running with server status before other commands

More Information

Full documentation: See README.md in the package
Test coverage: See TEST.md in the package
Methodology: See HARNESS.md in the cli-anything-plugin

Version

1.0.1