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Set up

How do I run fully local with Ollama?

Use a local model so no document text ever leaves your Mac — no key, no cost.

With Ollama as the provider, dossier’s AI runs entirely on your Mac: no API key, no per-use cost, and no document text ever leaves your machine.

Install and pull a model

brew install ollama
ollama pull llama3.3

Any chat-capable model works; bigger models give noticeably better filing proposals. On an Apple-silicon Mac with 32 GB+ RAM, a 70B-class model like llama3.3 is a good default. On smaller machines try llama3.1:8b or qwen2.5:14b — quicker, but expect to correct more proposals.

Start the server

OLLAMA_ORIGINS="*" ollama serve

(The OLLAMA_ORIGINS part avoids CORS errors when dossier talks to the local server. If you run Ollama.app instead of the CLI, it usually just works.)

Connect it

  1. In dossier: Settings → AI → Provider: Ollama (local).
  2. URL: http://localhost:11434 (the default).
  3. Pick from the models you’ve pulled — dossier lists what’s installed.

What to expect

Local models are great for proposals and searching, and the assistant works with them too — dossier includes extra tolerance for the ways smaller models fumble tool calls. For the smoothest assistant experience, a hosted model is still ahead; many people mix: local for everyday filing, hosted for the occasional heavy question.