Module 4: Ollama - Introduction

Model Management with the Ollama CLI

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Overview

You'll learn CLI commands to manage models: download, list, run, delete.

Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Low

🎯 Objectives

  • ✅ Download models (pull)
  • ✅ List models (list)
  • ✅ Run models (run)
  • ✅ Delete models (rm)

📥 Command: ollama pull

Download Mistral 7B:

ollama pull mistral

Output:

pulling manifest
pulling 4a0346896...
pulling 4a0346897...
success

Time: 5-15 min (4GB download)

Available models:

# Browse at ollama.com/library
ollama pull mistral        # 7B
ollama pull llama2         # 7B
ollama pull codellama      # 7B for code
ollama pull llama2:13b     # 13B (needs 16GB RAM)

📋 Command: ollama list

ollama list

Output:

NAME              ID            SIZE    MODIFIED
mistral:latest    4a0346896     4.1 GB  2 minutes ago
llama2:latest     3f8a42d       3.8 GB  1 hour ago

🚀 Command: ollama run

Interactive mode:

ollama run mistral

Interactive chat:

>>> Hi, what model are you?
I'm Mistral 7B, running locally on your machine.

>>> /bye

Special commands:

  • /bye - Quit
  • /show - Model info
  • /set parameter value - Change parameters

🗑️ Command: ollama rm

ollama rm mistral

Confirms deletion of the model (frees 4GB)

📊 Command: ollama show

ollama show mistral

Output:

Model: mistral:latest
Family: mistral
Parameters: 7B
Quantization: Q4_0
Context: 32768

⚙️ Parameters in the CLI

ollama run mistral --temperature 0.7 --top-p 0.9

Available parameters:

  • --temperature (0-2)
  • --top-p (0-1)
  • --num-ctx (context window)
  • --num-predict (max output tokens)

🔄 Update a Model

# Update to the latest version
ollama pull mistral

📊 Comparison: Ollama vs LM Studio

FeatureOllama CLILM Studio GUI
Downloadollama pull mistralClick Download
Runollama run mistralClick Load
Listollama listHome → My Models
Deleteollama rm mistralClick Delete
Automation✅ Scriptable❌ Manual

Ollama advantage: Automatable (scripts, CI/CD)

🐛 Troubleshooting

Error: Model not found

# List available models
ollama list

# Or visit: https://ollama.com/library

Error: Not enough memory

Solution: Download a smaller quantized version:

ollama pull mistral:7b-q4  # Q4 (4-bit)
ollama pull mistral:7b-q2  # Q2 (2-bit, smaller)

✅ Summary

Essential commands:

  • ollama pull <model> - Download
  • ollama list - List
  • ollama run <model> - Run
  • ollama rm <model> - Delete
  • ollama show <model> - Info

Typical workflow:

ollama pull mistral
ollama list
ollama run mistral
# Interactive chat...
ollama rm mistral  # If you no longer need it

Next: 04-api-rest-1.md

You'll learn to use Ollama as a REST API server (OpenAI-compatible).

Time: 25 min

← PreviousInstalling the Ollama CLINext →Ollama's REST API