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:

1. Always use --json flag for parseable output
2. Check return codes - 0 for success, non-zero for errors
3. Parse stderr for error messages on failure
4. Use --no-stream for generate/chat to get complete responses
5. 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