mcp-ollama
MCP server wrapping local Ollama models for offload from API-priced orchestrators.
Exposes 9 tools that pass work to a local model (text generation, summarisation, code tasks, mechanical transforms, commit/PR/changelog drafting). The orchestrator decides what to route locally; this server does the routing.
- Transport: stdio
- Runtime: Node 18+
- Default model:
hermes3:8b(override viaOLLAMA_MODEL) - Ollama host:
http://localhost:11434(override viaOLLAMA_HOST) - License: Apache-2.0
Install
npm install
npm run build
You also need a running Ollama instance with at least one model pulled:
ollama pull hermes3:8b
ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:32b # optional, for local_code
Run (stdio)
node dist/index.js
Configure Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport stdio ollama -- node /absolute/path/to/mcp-ollama/dist/index.js
Or in ~/.claude/settings.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"ollama": {
"transport": "stdio",
"command": "node",
"args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-ollama/dist/index.js"],
"env": {
"OLLAMA_HOST": "http://localhost:11434",
"OLLAMA_MODEL": "hermes3:8b"
}
}
}
}
Tools
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
local_generate | General-purpose generation with system + user prompt |
local_summarize | Summarise a blob of text |
local_analyze | Analyse text against a specific question |
local_draft | Draft content in a given style |
local_code | Code tasks: docstring / test / explain / review / types / refactor-suggest |
local_diff | Diff-driven tasks: commit-message / pr-description / changelog / summary / impact |
local_transform | Mechanical code transformations |
local_models | List models available on the local Ollama host |
local_pull | Pull a model onto the local Ollama host |
Full tool schemas are exposed over MCP introspection.
Environment variables
| Variable | Default | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
OLLAMA_HOST | http://localhost:11434 | Ollama HTTP endpoint |
OLLAMA_MODEL | hermes3:8b | Default model when a tool call omits model |
Why
Orchestrators priced by the token (Claude Code, Cursor, the Anthropic API) pay for every classification, every docstring, every commit message. Most of that work doesn't need Opus or GPT-5. Routed to Ollama on the same machine, the same work is free and faster. mcp-ollama is the routing surface.
Part of ALTER
mcp-ollama is maintained by ALTER as part of the identity infrastructure for the AI economy. The ALTER identity MCP server is hosted at mcp.truealter.com.