How to set a local Ollama model as the default provider/model in Posit Assistant?

Posit AI: Feedback & Discussions
1

There is some documentation on setting the default provider/model here, but I'm not sure how to set a local Ollama model as my default provider and model?

2

Hi @jarbet ,

Setup:

  • Install Ollama (i have 0.21.0)
  • Download a model locally (i used gemma4)
  • Start ollama serve
  • In the output it should specify the port it is running on (normally 11434).
  • Install Positron
    I am Using
    Positron Version: 2026.07.1 (user setup) build 5
    Code - OSS Version: 1.118.0
    Commit: d3cdd608df5afa3378c24c9a9c81b01fe1433a87
    Date: 2026-07-08T19:52:09-06:00
    Electron: 39.8.8
    Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
    Node.js: 22.22.1
    V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
    OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Connect:

  • Open positron
  • Go to the Posit Assistant
  • Click on Help me set it up
  • Click on Configure LLM provider
  • Select Custom Provider
  • Under URL add http://localhost:11434/v1 (switch port if you are using a non standard one)
  • API key be left empty
  • Click sign in

You should now be able to select your locally downloaded models and chat with them.