Local AI

Use Dagu with local model servers such as Ollama, vLLM, or LM Studio when they expose an OpenAI-compatible chat API.

This applies to both:

• the Web UI steward
• workflow steps that use action: chat.completion

What Dagu Expects

For local models, Dagu expects an OpenAI-compatible /v1 base URL.

Typical value:

http://localhost:11434/v1

Dagu then calls the normal chat-completions route under that base URL.

WARNING

Enter the base URL, not a full endpoint. Do not paste vendor-native endpoints such as /api/generate.

Correct And Incorrect Base URLs

Value entered in Dagu	Result
http://localhost:11434/v1	Correct
empty	Correct for a local Ollama server on the same machine as the Dagu process
http://localhost:11434/api/generate	Wrong
http://localhost:11434/v1/chat/completions	Wrong

Web UI AI agent Setup

1. Start your local model server
2. Make sure the model you want is already available there
3. Open /agent-settings
4. Add a model with:
   • Provider: Local
   • Model: your installed model tag
   • Base URL: leave empty or set http://localhost:11434/v1
5. Set that model as the default if you want the built-in steward to use it

Typical Ollama Example

• Provider: Local
• Model: llama3.2
• Base URL: http://localhost:11434/v1

Workflow Example

steps:
  - action: chat.completion
    with:
      provider: local
      model: llama3.2
      base_url: http://localhost:11434/v1
      messages:
        - role: user
          content: "Summarize this repository in one paragraph."
    output: RESULT

Dagu also accepts aliases such as ollama, vllm, and llama in workflow YAML, but they all follow the same local-model path.

Important Networking Note

localhost means the machine or container running Dagu, not the browser.

Examples:

• if Dagu runs directly on your laptop, localhost usually means your laptop
• if Dagu runs in Docker or Kubernetes, localhost means that container or pod
• if a remote node runs the step, localhost means that remote node

Current Limits On This Path

The local-model path is intended for normal text chat use.

Plan around these limits:

• Dagu expects the OpenAI-compatible route, not vendor-native endpoints
• provider-specific knobs such as Ollama native think options are not configured from this path
• multimodal/image message content is not the target use case here

If you need vendor-specific behavior, put that behind a compatible proxy or use the vendor tool directly outside this path.

Troubleshooting

404 From Ollama

Most often the base URL is wrong. Use:

http://localhost:11434/v1

Do not use:

• http://localhost:11434/api/generate
• http://localhost:11434/v1/chat/completions

model not found

The model name in Dagu must exactly match the model tag available in your local server.

Works On My Laptop, Fails In Dagu

Check where Dagu is actually running. If Dagu runs in Docker, Kubernetes, or on a remote node, the local server must also be reachable from there.

External References

• Ollama Quickstart
• Ollama OpenAI Compatibility

Related Pages

• Basic Chat
• AI agent
• Models & Providers