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Get Started Free →Route a NanoClaw agent group to a local Ollama model instead of the Anthropic API. Ollama speaks the Anthropic API natively (v1/messages), so no provider code changes are needed — just env var overrides and a model setting. Use when the user wants to run their agent locally, cut API costs, or experiment with open-weight models. See docs/ollama.md for background.
| Test case | Without → With | Effect | Δ tokens | Δ turns |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| case-06 | ✗→✓ | ▲ Improved | 201% | 0% |
| case-07 | ✗→✓ | ▲ Improved | 4% | 0% |
| case-08 | ✗→✓ | ▲ Improved | -15% | 0% |
| case-10 | ✗→✓ | ▲ Improved | 5% | 0% |
| case-11 | ✗→✓ | ▲ Improved | 78% | 0% |
Routes an agent group to a local Ollama instance instead of the Anthropic API. See docs/ollama.md for how this works and the tradeoffs involved.
curl -s http://localhost:11434/api/tagsollama pull gemma4 or ollama pull qwen3-coder/init-first-agent first if neededThe feature requires two fields in ContainerConfig (env and blockedHosts) and their corresponding wiring in container-runner.ts. Check if already present:
bashgrep -c 'blockedHosts' src/container-config.ts src/container-runner.ts
If either count is 0, apply the changes in steps 1a and 1b. Otherwise skip to step 2.
In src/container-config.ts, add to the ContainerConfig interface:
typescriptenv?: Record<string, string>; blockedHosts?: string[];
And in readContainerConfig, add inside the returned object:
typescriptenv: raw.env, blockedHosts: raw.blockedHosts,
In src/container-runner.ts, after the NANOCLAW_MCP_SERVERS block, add:
typescript// Per-agent-group env overrides — applied last to win over OneCLI values. if (containerConfig.env) { for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(containerConfig.env)) { args.push('-e', `${key}=${value}`); } } // Blocked hosts: resolve to 0.0.0.0 so they are unreachable inside the container. if (containerConfig.blockedHosts) { for (const host of containerConfig.blockedHosts) { args.push('--add-host', `${host}:0.0.0.0`); } }
The container may run as your host uid (not uid 1000). Check the Dockerfile:
bashgrep 'chmod.*home/node' container/Dockerfile
If it shows chmod 755, change it to chmod 777 so any uid can write there. Then rebuild the container image: ./container/build.sh
Ask the user (plain text, not AskUserQuestion):
pnpm exec tsx scripts/q.ts data/v2.db "SELECT folder, name FROM agent_groups;"curl -s http://localhost:11434/api/tags | grep '"name"'Record as FOLDER, MODEL, and BLOCK_ANTHROPIC.
Read groups/<FOLDER>/container.json. Add (or merge into) an env block and optionally blockedHosts:
json{ "env": { "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "http://host.docker.internal:11434", "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "ollama", "NO_PROXY": "host.docker.internal", "no_proxy": "host.docker.internal" }, "blockedHosts": ["api.anthropic.com"] }
Omit blockedHosts if the user declined step 2.
Why these vars: ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL redirects the Anthropic SDK to Ollama. ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=ollama satisfies the SDK's key requirement (Ollama ignores it). NO_PROXY bypasses the OneCLI HTTPS proxy for requests to host.docker.internal so they reach Ollama directly instead of going through the credential gateway.
Read the agent group's shared Claude settings:
bash# Find the agent group ID AG_ID=$(pnpm exec tsx scripts/q.ts data/v2.db "SELECT id FROM agent_groups WHERE folder='<FOLDER>';") SETTINGS=data/v2-sessions/$AG_ID/.claude-shared/settings.json
Add "model": "<MODEL>" to that settings file. Create the file if it doesn't exist:
json{ "model": "gemma4:latest" }
If the file already has content, merge the model key in — don't overwrite existing keys.
Why here and not container.json: Claude Code reads its model from its own settings file, not from env vars. This file is bind-mounted into the container as ~/.claude/settings.json.
Run from your NanoClaw project root:
bashexport PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH" pnpm run build source setup/lib/install-slug.sh launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/$(launchd_label).plist launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/$(launchd_label).plist # Linux: systemctl --user restart $(systemd_unit)
Send a message to the agent. Then confirm:
bash# Ollama shows the model as active curl -s http://localhost:11434/api/ps | grep '"name"' # Container has the right env vars CTR=$(docker ps --filter "name=nanoclaw-v2-<FOLDER>" --format "{{.Names}}" | head -1) docker inspect "$CTR" --format '{{json .HostConfig.ExtraHosts}}' docker exec "$CTR" env | grep ANTHROPIC
Expected: api.anthropic.com:0.0.0.0 in ExtraHosts, ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:11434.
To switch back to the Anthropic API:
env and blockedHosts keys from groups/<FOLDER>/container.json"model" from the shared settings fileNo rebuild needed — both files are read at container spawn time.
Agent hangs, no response: Ollama may be loading the model cold (large models take 10–30s). Watch curl -s http://localhost:11434/api/ps — the model appears once loaded.
"model not found" error in container logs: The model name in settings.json doesn't match what Ollama has. Run ollama list on the host and use the exact name shown.
Responses claim to be Claude: The model was trained on data that includes Claude conversations. Add a line to groups/<FOLDER>/CLAUDE.md telling it what model it runs on.
Agent responds but Ollama shows no activity: NO_PROXY may not have taken effect for http_proxy (lowercase). Add both NO_PROXY and no_proxy to the env block.
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