- Actions Taken:
- Established a complete workflow for building and managing local,
tool-capable Ollama models for use with the Gemini CLI.
- Created two model definition files (
morpheum-local.ollama,
qwen3-coder-local.ollama) that instruct a base LLM on how to format tool
calls for the Gemini CLI.
- Engineered a generic
Makefile that automatically discovers any *.ollama
file and builds it if the source is newer than the existing model manifest.
This avoids unnecessary rebuilds.
- Added the
ollama package to flake.nix to integrate it into the project’s
declarative development environment.
- Friction/Success Points:
- Success: The
Makefile implementation was iteratively refined from a
basic concept with dummy files into a robust, scalable solution that uses
pattern rules and relies on Ollama’s own manifest files for dependency
tracking. This was a significant improvement.
- Lessons Learned:
make is a highly effective tool for automating tasks beyond traditional
code compilation, including managing AI models.- Understanding the internal file structure of a tool like Ollama (e.g., where
manifests are stored) is key to creating more elegant and reliable
automation.
- Using a file-based convention (
<model-name>.ollama) combined with make’s
pattern rules creates a build system that requires zero changes to add new
models.
- Next Steps:
- With the local toolchain in place, the next logical step is to configure the
Gemini CLI to use one of the local models and test its ability to perform a
representative development task.
Morpheum