Lightweight CLI client for a remote Ollama server
Lightweight CLI client for a remote Ollama server. That is what the ollama mcp server brings to an AI assistant: the same capability, reachable through the Model Context Protocol rather than a separate app or dashboard.
A lightweight CLI client for a remote Ollama server. Designed to be a drop-in replacement for the ollama CLI when you need to talk to a server running on a different machine — output formats, column names, and flag names match the official client character-for-character wherever possible.
Installation goes through your MCP client rather than a global install: point it at ollama-client on PyPI and it is fetched when the client starts. The copy-paste blocks for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor are further down this page.
The server publishes 3 tools. What each one is for:
launch — Configure and launch an AI coding tool backed by the local Ollama serverhelp — The help tool exposed by this serverDivergencies — The official launch command includes a full TUI, model capability detection (vision, reasoning, context length), auto-install of integrations, cloudConfiguration is passed through the environment: OLLAMA_HOST, OLLAMA_CLIENT_HOST, ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL, COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL. Treat anything key-shaped as a real credential — scope it to the minimum the server needs, and rotate it if it ever lands in a shared config.
Plenty of developer tooling servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. Ollama's toolset — launch, help, Divergencies — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow.
SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| launch | Configure and launch an AI coding tool backed by the local Ollama server. |
| help | The help tool exposed by this server. |
| Divergencies | The official launch command includes a full TUI, model capability detection (vision, reasoning, context length), auto-install of integrations, cloud model support, and --yes auto-confirmation. This client implements the |
{
"mcpServers": {
"ollama-client": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["ollama-client"],
"env": {
"OLLAMA_HOST": "your-value",
"OLLAMA_CLIENT_HOST": "your-value",
"ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "your-value",
"COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL": "your-value"
}
}
}
}Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| OLLAMA_HOST | Endpoint or connection string the server talks to. | Optional |
| OLLAMA_CLIENT_HOST | Endpoint or connection string the server talks to. | Optional |
| ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL | Endpoint or connection string the server talks to. | Yes |
| COPILOT_PROVIDER_BASE_URL | Endpoint or connection string the server talks to. | Yes |
Kill hallucinated APIs — version-accurate, up-to-date library documentation injected straight into context.
Microsoft's official browser automation server — drive a real browser through the accessibility tree, no screenshots needed.
GitHub's official server — repos, issues, pull requests, Actions and code security, straight from your assistant.
Issue tracking at the speed of conversation — Linear's official hosted server with OAuth and zero install.
Local repository surgery — status, diffs, commits, branches and history for any repo on disk.
Timezone sanity for AI — current time anywhere and correct conversions, without the model doing date math.