Best for: fastest path to a working Ollama setup with automatic model discovery.

1. Run onboarding

   openclaw onboard
   

   Select Ollama from the provider list.

2. Choose your mode
   • Cloud + Local — cloud-hosted models and local models together
   • Local — local models only

   If you choose Cloud + Local and are not signed in to ollama.com, onboarding opens a browser sign-in flow.

3. Select a model

   Onboarding discovers available models and suggests defaults. It auto-pulls the selected model if it is not available locally.

4. Verify the model is available

   openclaw models list --provider ollama
   

Non-interactive mode

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --auth-choice ollama \
  --accept-risk

Optionally specify a custom base URL or model:

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --auth-choice ollama \
  --custom-base-url "http://ollama-host:11434" \
  --custom-model-id "qwen3.5:27b" \
  --accept-risk

Best for: full control over installation, model pulls, and config.

1. Install Ollama

   Download from ollama.com/download.

2. Pull a local model

   ollama pull gemma4
   # or
   ollama pull gpt-oss:20b
   # or
   ollama pull llama3.3
   

3. Sign in for cloud models (optional)

   If you want cloud models too:

   ollama signin
   

4. Enable Ollama for OpenClaw

   Set any value for the API key (Ollama does not require a real key):

   # Set environment variable
   export OLLAMA_API_KEY="ollama-local"
   
   # Or configure in your config file
   openclaw config set models.providers.ollama.apiKey "ollama-local"
   

5. Inspect and set your model

   openclaw models list
   openclaw models set ollama/gemma4
   

   Or set the default in config:

   {
     agents: {
       defaults: {
         model: { primary: "ollama/gemma4" },
       },
     },
   }
   

Cloud models let you run cloud-hosted models alongside your local models. Examples include kimi-k2.5:cloud, minimax-m2.7:cloud, and glm-5.1:cloud -- these do not require a local ollama pull.

Select Cloud + Local mode during setup. The wizard checks whether you are signed in and opens a browser sign-in flow when needed. If authentication cannot be verified, the wizard falls back to local model defaults.

You can also sign in directly at ollama.com/signin.

OpenClaw currently suggests these cloud defaults: kimi-k2.5:cloud, minimax-m2.7:cloud, glm-5.1:cloud.

In local-only mode, OpenClaw discovers models from the local Ollama instance. No cloud sign-in is needed.

OpenClaw currently suggests gemma4 as the local default.

The simplest way to enable Ollama is via environment variable:

export OLLAMA_API_KEY="ollama-local"

Use explicit config when Ollama runs on another host/port, you want to force specific context windows or model lists, or you want fully manual model definitions.

{
  models: {
    providers: {
      ollama: {
        baseUrl: "http://ollama-host:11434",
        apiKey: "ollama-local",
        api: "ollama",
        models: [
          {
            id: "gpt-oss:20b",
            name: "GPT-OSS 20B",
            reasoning: false,
            input: ["text"],
            cost: { input: 0, output: 0, cacheRead: 0, cacheWrite: 0 },
            contextWindow: 8192,
            maxTokens: 8192 * 10
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

If Ollama is running on a different host or port (explicit config disables auto-discovery, so define models manually):

{
  models: {
    providers: {
      ollama: {
        apiKey: "ollama-local",
        baseUrl: "http://ollama-host:11434", // No /v1 - use native Ollama API URL
        api: "ollama", // Set explicitly to guarantee native tool-calling behavior
      },
    },
  },
}