# Claude Code with Local LLMs: Ollama Full Tutorial In January 2026, Ollama added support for the Anthropic Messages API, allowing Claude Code to connect to local models. This tutorial covers installing Claude Code, running a model with Ollama, and configuring the connection. Author: Vladislav Guzey Published: 2026-01-24 Canonical: https://proflead.dev/posts/claude-code-with-ollama-tutorial/
In January 2026, Ollama added **support for the Anthropic Messages API**, allowing Claude Code to connect to local models. This tutorial covers installing Claude Code, running a model with Ollama, and configuring the connection. ## Installing Ollama **[Ollama](/posts/ollama-tutorial/)** is a locally deployed AI model runner that lets you download and run large language models on your own machine. It provides a command-line interface and an API, supports open models such as Mistral and Gemma, and uses quantization to make models run efficiently on consumer hardware. A _model file_ allows you to customise base models, system prompts, and parameters (temperature, top-p, top-k). Running models locally gives you offline capability and protects sensitive data. To use Claude Code with local models, you need **Ollama v0.14.0 or later**. The January 2026 blog notes that this version implements Anthropic Messages API compatibility. For streaming tool calls (used when Claude Code executes functions or scripts), a pre-release such as `0.14.3‑rc1` may be required. ```bash curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh ``` After installation, verify the version with `ollama version.` ### Pulling a model Choose a local model suitable for coding tasks. You can see the full list on [https://ollama.com/search](https://ollama.com/search) website. Pulling a model downloads and configures it. For example: ```bash # Pull the 20 B parameter GPT‑OSS model ollama pull gpt-oss:20b ``` ```bash # Pull Qwen Coder (a general coding model) ollama pull qwen3-coder ``` To use Claude Code’s advanced tool features locally, the article **Running Claude Code fully local** recommends **GLM-4.7-flash** because it supports tool-calling and provides a 128K context length. Pull it with: ``` ollama pull glm-4.7-flash:latest ``` ## Installing Claude Code **Claude Code** is Anthropic’s agentic coding tool. It can read and modify files, run tests, fix bugs, and even handle merge conflicts across your entire code base. It uses large language models to act as a pair of autonomous hands in your terminal, letting you **vibe-code** (describing what you want in plain language and letting the AI generate the code). ```bash curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash ``` From your terminal, run: ```bash export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=ollama export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434 ``` ```bash # Launch the integration interactively ollama launch claude ``` Then you will see the model list that you installed in the previous step. Select the one you want to test, then hit Enter. ![Model list](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*LWgghoZoluWfGStXU8jTAw.png) And that’s it! Now your Claude code works with Ollama and local models. ![Now your Claude code works with Ollama](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*4yYsVJ6PdTj_HHSMj_DAbg.png) ## Video Tutorial **_Watch on YouTube:_** [**_Claude Code with Ollama_**](https://youtu.be/COpg79ab6ug) ## Summary By pairing **Claude Code** with **Ollama**, you can run agentic coding workflows entirely on your own machine. Don’t expect the same experience as with the Anthropic models! Experiment with different models and share with me which one worked the best for you! Cheers! ;)