Run WireCat on local models

WireCat keeps your messages, mail, notes and files on your computer. Some features also send text, pictures or a search question to an AI model, and so does the agent you connect to WireCat. When that model is a cloud service, your private text goes to that company. This guide shows how to run a model on your own computer and point every feature and your agent at it, step by step, so that what they read stays with you. You need a computer that can run a model, ideally with a graphics card. A few parts of WireCat cannot use a local model yet, and the end of the page lists them.

1. Run a model on your computerCopy Anchor Link

Ollama is the easiest start, and WireCat Desktop knows it by name.

1. Install Ollama and download a model with ollama pull <model>. For reading pictures, pick a model that can see them, such as llava.

2. Ollama listens on 127.0.0.1:11434, which WireCat expects. Keep that address.

3. Turn off Ollama's cloud models. A model whose name ends in cloud runs on Ollama's servers, and its web search goes out too. Ollama's FAQ describes local only mode: set "disable_ollama_cloud": true in ~/.ollama/server.json, or OLLAMA_NO_CLOUD=1, then restart Ollama.

4. If you will run a coding agent on it, give the model a longer memory for text. Ollama's context length page asks for at least 64000 tokens for agents and coding tools:

   Copy Text

   OLLAMA_CONTEXT_LENGTH=64000 ollama serve

   If Ollama already runs in the background, set the variable as Ollama's server settings describe for your system.

Any other server that speaks the OpenAI interface works too. WireCat needs its address, and each server's docs give the default one:

Use the port your server really listens on, and keep the address on this computer, such as 127.0.0.1 or localhost.

2. What is already localCopy Anchor Link

You do not need to change anything for these:

• Search by meaning and picture search run on models that WireCat downloads to your computer.
• Meeting recordings are transcribed on your computer.
• Chat linking, reply drafts and reading text in attachments with an AI model stay off until you set a model for them yourself.

3. The AI model in SettingsCopy Anchor Link

This model reads the text in pictures you add to memory, and can read sources for facts. In WireCat Desktop open Settings, AI model. See AI model and better search for every field.

With Ollama:

1. As Provider, choose Ollama on this computer (beta), and pick the model from the list.
2. Tick Read pictures with this model if you want it to read pictures. The note under it says the pictures stay on this computer.
3. Save and click Check.

The same from a terminal. Here --allow-remote is what lets pictures go to the model, even though this model is on your computer:

memo models ai set ollama --model llava --allow-remote

With another server on your computer:

1. As Provider, choose OpenAI or compatible.
2. In Address (base URL), enter your server's address from the table above.
3. Type the model's name as your server shows it.
4. In API key, type any value. WireCat asks for a key even for a server on your computer, and the server ignores it.
5. Save and click Check.

4. Reading for factsCopy Anchor Link

In Settings, Reading for facts, choose AI model, which is now your local model, or Ollama. Each reader says whether the text leaves this computer. Claude Code and Codex send it to their own model. Click Use this reader. Add to memory then suggests facts with that model.

5. Search harder and rewriting records for searchCopy Anchor Link

Both helpers are off by default. They are in Memo's details: on the Tools page, click Manage on Memo's row.

Search harder reorders the top results of one search when you press the button. Click Allow, choose OpenAI, type your local model's name in Model, and enter http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1 in Address of another OpenAI-compatible service. Then agree with the button that names the provider. It waits only 5 seconds for an answer, so a model that runs without a graphics card will likely run out of time, and the search keeps its own order.

Rewrite records for better search adds other words to your notes, documents and emails. WireCat Desktop offers only cloud models for it, so leave it off there. From a terminal you can point it at your local server:

memo models consents set openai --model <model> --base-url http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1 --yes

Search harder takes the same address from a terminal:

memo models search-consents set openai --model <model> --base-url http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1 --yes

6. Voice messagesCopy Anchor Link

By default the messenger makes the text from its own copy of a voice message, when it has a speech service, such as Telegram Premium. To make the text on your computer with a model you downloaded, add --local:

tg <profile> messages transcribe <chat> <message> --local

When your agent asks for a transcription, it may not add --local. Ask it to, or use the command yourself.

7. Your coding agent on a local modelCopy Anchor Link

The agent you connect to WireCat over MCP or in a terminal reads your messages and notes through WireCat, then sends them to its own model. To keep that local, run the agent on your local model. WireCat Desktop works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Hermes and OpenClaw. Connect your AI agent shows how to connect one.

Ollama starts five of them on a local model with one command, ollama launch <agent>, where the agent is codex, claude, opencode, hermes or openclaw. Ollama's pages for Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode, Hermes and OpenClaw describe it. When it asks for a model, pick one you downloaded, not one that ends in cloud.

ollama launch codex

Without ollama launch:

• Codex. Codex's advanced configuration describes --oss for a local Ollama or LM Studio, and oss_provider in ~/.codex/config.toml to choose one by default. Ollama's page gives codex --oss -m <model>.
• Claude Code. Ollama's Claude Code page sets ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434, ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=ollama and an empty ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, then runs claude --model <model>. Claude Code's settings can override these variables, so check with /status. LM Studio describes the same with its own address. Anthropic does not support Claude Code on models other than Claude.
• OpenCode. OpenCode's providers page says it finds Ollama, LM Studio and vLLM on this computer by itself. Start the server, then choose the model in OpenCode.
• Hermes. Run hermes model and choose a custom endpoint with your server's address, as Hermes' providers page shows.
• OpenClaw. Run openclaw onboard and choose Ollama, then Local only, as OpenClaw's Ollama page shows. Use Ollama's address without /v1.

Cursor and Gemini CLI have no setup in their docs that runs the agent itself on a model on your computer.

Every one of these docs asks for a model that can call tools, and a context of at least 64000 tokens. A small model on a laptop answers slowly and makes more mistakes with WireCat's commands than a cloud model.

8. Digests and the mail agentCopy Anchor Link

Digests and the mail agent in WireCat Desktop run Claude Code on Anthropic's model. They start without your Claude Code settings, so the steps above do not reach them. Today they send the mail and messages they read to Anthropic. If you want everything local, do not turn them on.

Checklist: everything localCopy Anchor Link

1. Ollama or another model server runs on this computer, and Ollama's cloud models are off.
2. Settings, AI model is Ollama or an address on this computer.
3. Reading for facts uses the AI model or Ollama.
4. Search harder is off, or points at your local server. Rewrite records for better search is off, or set from a terminal to your local server.
5. Voice messages are transcribed with --local.
6. Your agent runs on a local model, or you connect no agent.
7. Digests and the mail agent are off.

What still leaves your computer todayCopy Anchor Link

• Digests and the mail agent, which run Claude Code on Anthropic's model.
• Anything your agent reads, when the agent runs on a cloud model.

WireCat is working on one switch that keeps every feature on your computer and shows what is local and what is not.

NextCopy Anchor Link

AI model and better search explains each setting in more detail.