ollama-layer

Recipe card from the charly-ollama plugin (Images — the deployable catalog).

ollama – Local LLM inference server

Candy Properties

Property	Value
Dependencies	`cuda`, `supervisord`
Ports	11434
Volumes	`models` -> `~/.ollama`
Aliases	`ollama` -> `ollama`
Service	`ollama` (supervisord)
Install files	`task:`

Environment Variables

Variable	Value
`OLLAMA_HOST`	`0.0.0.0`
`OLLAMA_MODELS`	`~/.ollama/models`

Service Environment (injected into other containers)

Variable	Template Value	Resolved Example
`OLLAMA_HOST`	`http://{{.ContainerName}}:11434`	`http://charly-ollama:11434`

Pod-aware: same-container consumers receive http://localhost:11434, cross-container consumers receive http://charly-ollama:11434. When charly config ollama runs, OLLAMA_HOST is automatically injected into the global charly.yml env. Use charly config ollama --update-all to propagate to already-deployed services immediately.

See /charly-image:layer for env_provide field docs and /charly-core:charly-config for --update-all.

Usage

ollama:
  candy:
    - ollama

charly alias install ollama    # install host 'ollama' command
ollama run llama3          # uses the alias

Used In Boxes

/charly-ollama:ollama

Cross-Container Integration

The env_provide mechanism makes OLLAMA_HOST available to all containers. The hermes candy auto-detects this variable and configures itself to use local Ollama as its LLM provider (highest priority in the auto-detection chain: OLLAMA_HOST > OLLAMA_API_KEY > OPENROUTER_API_KEY). See /charly-hermes:hermes for details on the auto-provider-configuration.

Tests

The candy ships its acceptance steps in its plan:, baked into the ai.opencharly.description OCI label (see /charly-check:check for the full schema). Each step is one inline Op — a probe is a check: step — and its context: list gates where it runs:

context: [build] (run under charly check box):
- ollama-binary — /usr/bin/ollama exists
context: [deploy] (run under charly check live against a live service; uses ${HOST_PORT:11434} / ${CONTAINER_IP} so deploy-time port remapping works unchanged):
- ollama-tags-api — GET http://${CONTAINER_IP}:${HOST_PORT:11434}/api/tags returns 200
- ollama-version — ollama --version stdout matches ^ollama version

/charly-distros:cuda – CUDA toolkit dependency
/charly-infrastructure:supervisord – process manager dependency
/charly-openclaw:openclaw – AI gateway that can use Ollama as backend
/charly-hermes:hermes – AI agent that auto-detects OLLAMA_HOST for local Ollama provider

/charly-core:charly-config — Deploy with quadlet (secrets, volumes, env_provide injection)
/charly-core:start — Start the Ollama service
/charly-core:service — Manage Ollama service inside container

When to Use This Skill

Use when the user asks about:

Ollama setup or model management
LLM serving or inference
Port 11434 configuration
Ollama model storage volume
The ollama host alias